NFL Films
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NFL Films logo |
NFL Films is a
Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based
company devoted to producing
commercials,
television programs, feature
films, and
documentaries on the
National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows. Founded as Blair Motion Pictures by
Ed Sabol in
1962, and nowrun by his son
Steven Sabol, it is currently owned by the NFL.
Founder Ed Sabol was a
World War II veteran who worked selling topcoats after returning back to the
United States. In his spare time, he often used a
motion picture camera, received as a wedding gift, to record his son Steven's
high school football games. Inspired by his own work, Sabol founded a small film company named Blair Motion Pictures, after his daughter. Sabol won the bidding for the rights to film the
1962 NFL championship game for $3,000, double the bid for the
1961 championship game. The film of that game impressed NFL Commissioner
Pete Rozelle, who asked the owners of the NFL to agree to buy out Sabol's company. Although the owners rejected Rozelle's proposal in
1964, they agreed a year later and renamed Sabol's company "NFL Films." He received $12,000 in seed money from each of the league's 14 owners, and in return would shoot all NFL games and produce a highlight film for each team. [
1] [
2]
Much has been made of the style that NFL Films produces. All followcertain patterns: they are always shot on film, they have one camerashoot the action entirely in slow motion, they have
microphones on thesidelines and near the field to pick up both the sound of the game aswell as the talk on the sidelines, and pick narrators with deep andpowerful voices, such as
Harry Kalas and the famous
John Facenda, called by some as"The Voice of God." NFL Films also uses only local radio calls of key plays, not the television broadcast. In addition, they often use multiple cameraangles, operatic scores, and film of the players and coaches in thelocker room after the game. Many say that through the use of thesetechniques, NFL Films turns football games into forms similar to
ballet,
opera, and
epic battles.[
3]
NFL Films produces the Greatest Moments series, which details classicgames from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; the Lost Treasuresseries, which uses old NFL Films footage which had previously neverbeen shown on television to give an inside and largely uncut look atfootball players, coaches, and referees; and NFL Films Presents, whichshows games of today that NFL Films produces in their traditional,dramatic style. They appear on either
ESPN or the
NFL Network.
Also, NFL Films' game highlights are a staple of
HBO's
Inside the NFL.
Although NFL Films earns more than $50 million in revenue a year andis expanding at a double digit rate, compared to the $18 billion inrevenue that the NFL earns from television alone, most consider this to beminor. [
4] The real value of NFL Films is how it packages and sells thegame and many credit it for the reason that the NFL has become themost watched league in the United States.
In addition to covering the NFL, NFL Films has also ventured into other unrelated documentary films, such as documenting the Munich Olympics incident for one of
NBC's Olympics telecasts, and serving as back-up film photography for other major events.
Although NFL Films is trusted by nearly all the players and coaches ofthe NFL, some have said this is because that they almost never showthose interviewed, or the league itself, in a poor light. Manycriticize it for not showing the seedier side of pro football,including promiscuity, excessive violence, and heavy
drug use.
Sports Illustrated once called NFL Films "…perhaps the most effectivepropaganda organ in the history of corporate America."
Steven Sabol counters these arguments by saying:
"That's not what we do. That's being done by others. Why should we join that group?...There's newspapers, and tabloids and television. They're doing that. So I don't contribute, and just follow along. The game is beautiful and I love it, and that's the way I want to portray it." [
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National Football League*
American Football*
NFL Films*
NFL*
Some early John Facenda and NFL Films history
