For a brief moment Richard Jewell was an American hero. He was the saviour of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the man who had put his own life at risk to remove a live bomb from Centennial Olympics Park an save hundreds of lives. Within a few days he would be one of the most suspected, hated men in America. And it was a hatred that was entirely unjustified.

A new ESPN 30 for 30 film, 'Judgng Jewell', documents the tragic tale of Jewell and how his act of bravery was soon twisted by a malicious FBI leak and a media trial that would ruin his life.

Two people died when the bomb detonated, though the death toll would have been far higher had Jewell not acted. He was proclaimed a hero, until the FBI leaked to the media that Jewell was a suspect.

Director of Judging Jewwell, Adam Hootnick, joined us on Off the Ball tonight to discuss the film and the sad tale of Richard Jewell.

Hootnick explained to Joe Molloy how one of the most remarkable aspects of what he met when making the documentary was “the ease and speed with which the media was able to turn 180 degrees…a hero one day was called a militia man, a killer a terrorist, you name it, within just hours.”

“Without any real evidence against him”, Hootnick says, the media compared Jewell with some of the worst individuals in history and constructed a fantasists narrative of a failed law enforcement officer who had set up the bombing to give himself the chance to be a hero.

Instead of the glory he was owed Jewell found himself under siege from a media pack and public happy to hang him out to dry. Jewell was “a guy that should have been shaking the president’s hand as a hero, but instead couldn’t get a job as a police officer, which is all he wanted,” said Hootnick.

You can listen to the tragic tale of Richard Jewell via the player below and watch the full ESPN 30 for 30 documentary at Grantland