 | |
| Formerly | Blair Motion Pictures (1962–1965) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1962; 63 years ago (1962) |
| Founder | Ed Sabol |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Parent | National Football League |
| Website | Official website |
NFL Productions, LLC, doing business asNFL Films,[1] is the film and television production company of theNational Football League. It producescommercials,television programs, featurefilms, anddocumentaries for and about the NFL, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows. Founded asBlair Motion Pictures byEd Sabol in1962 and run by his sonSteve Sabol until his death, it produces most of the NFL's filmed and videotaped content except its live game coverage, which is handled separately by the individual networks. NFL Films is based inMount Laurel, New Jersey.
FounderEd Sabol was aWorld War II veteran who worked selling topcoats after returning to theUnited States. In his spare time, he used amotion picturecamera, received as a wedding gift, to record his sonSteve'shigh school football games. Inspired by his work, Sabol founded a small film company called Blair Motion Pictures, named after his daughter Blair.[2]
Sabol won the bidding for the rights to film the1962 NFL championship game for$5,000, double the bid for the1961 championship game.[2] The film of that game impressed NFL CommissionerPete 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 companyNFL Films. He received $20,000 in seed money from each of the league's then 14 owners, and in return would shoot all NFL games and produce an annual highlight film for each team.[3][4]
In June 1966, the NFL agreed with the rivalAmerican Football League tomerge in 1970. One of the reasons the leagues initially remained separate entities was to give Sabol adequate time to expand NFL Films in order to service a significantly enlarged league. Under the merger terms, NFL Films began covering theAmerican Football League (AFL) in1968, ostensibly under a newly established "AFL Films" division. In reality, "AFL Films" crews were simply regular NFL Films personnel wearing separate jackets to appease AFL loyalists.[5]
On August 6, 2011, Ed Sabol was inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame as a major contributor to the National Football League. Sabol died on February 9, 2015, at his home in Arizona.
Much has been made of the Films style.Salon.com television critic, Matt Zoller Seitz, has called NFL Films "the greatest in-houseP.R. machine in pro sports history...an outfit that could make even a tedious stalemate seem as momentous as thebattle for the Alamo."[6]
NFL Films productions follow certain patterns. Film is mostly used. One camera is dedicated entirely to slow motion shots andmicrophones are present on the sidelines and near the field to pick up both the sounds of the game as well as the talk on the sidelines. The narrators have deep, powerful, baritone voices. Narrators have usually been from thePhiladelphia metropolitan area, with well-known announcers such asJohn Facenda,Harry Kalas,Jefferson Kaye,Andy Musser,Jack Whitaker,William Woodson, and current announcerScott Graham all having narrated NFL Films presentations.J.K. Simmons was tapped to narrate the company's one-hour recap of the16–0 regular season of the 2007 New England Patriots, while actorBurt Lancaster was tabbed for narrations in 1969.Burl Ives was also called upon to narrate the1971 Washington Redskins highlight film.
Team-specific films such as "year-in-review films" have occasionally been narrated by broadcasters or personalities involved with the team in question. Examples include the1985,2000, and2001 Oakland Raiders season reviews being narrated by actor and former Raiders playerCarl Weathers. Former GiantFrank Gifford periodically narratedNew York Giants season reviews (notably the company'sthrowback-themed2013 season recap) until he died in 2015, and ex-Giants teammatePat Summerall narrated highlight films for many teams until he died in 2013.
New England Patriotsplay-by-play announcerGil Santos narrated the year-in-review films of the1974,1976, and1978 seasons, andNew Orleans Saints films from their inception in 1967 through 1979 were narrated byDon Criqui, who called Saints games for theNFL on CBS in the team's early years, along with radio announcers Al Wester and Wayne Mack. LongtimeKDKA radio &KDKA-TV personalityLarry Richert often narrated films of thePittsburgh Steelers prior to becoming the team'sPA announcer atAcrisure Stadium and continues to do so today. (Richert is also the brother-in-law toMiami Dolphins legendDan Marino.) Other programming such as "NFL Films Presents" and its Super Bowl Recap hosted by Carissa Thompson has been narrated by veteran actor and voice actor Leonard Dozier.
The style of film has been calledtight on the spiral, a reference to the frequently-usedslow-motion shot of the spinning football as it travels from the quarterback's hand to the receiver. This shot usually consists of showing the quarterback throwing the football, then the camera zooming in to focus on the spinning ball, as the ball starts to descend, the camera zooms out, showing the result of the ball landing into the receiver's hands. NFL Films also dubssound bites of local radio broadcasts over key plays, because radio announcers are typically more enthusiastic about their home teams than are the network television broadcasters.
In addition, NFL Films often uses multiple camera angles (with an emphasis on close-up shots that often exaggerate the speed of the players in real-time). The company's films also employ muscular orchestral scores from a wide variety of musicians, notablySam Spence,Johnny Pearson (whose "Heavy Action" became the theme forMonday Night Football) Frank Rothman, Ralph Dollimore, Udi Harpaz,Malcolm Lockyer,Jan Stoeckart (under his varied stage names such as Jack Trombey),Peter Reno, Paul Lewis, Prameela Tomashek,Dave Robidoux andTom Hedden.
The company's use ofKPM Musichouse (now KPM Music) tracks also notably includedSyd Dale; tracks include "Maelstrom" for the company's1968 Minnesota Vikings season highlight reel and also the psychedelic-flavored jazz track "Artful Dodger" on the film recap ofSuper Bowl V, specifically during the montage which showsJohnny Unitas's 75-yard touchdown pass toJohn Mackey which was tipped in flight byEddie Hinton andMel Renfro before landing in the hands of Mackey.
The company also makes prolific use of footage of players and coaches in the locker room after the game. With these techniques, NFL Films turns football games into events that mimicballet,opera, andepic battles. Among the company's most famous creation is the poem and accompanying music cue "The Autumn Wind", which have become official themes for theLas Vegas Raiders.
One of NFL Films' most popular series isHard Knocks. With production run entirely from the field and the NFL Films facility, NFL Films and HBO follow one NFL team as they go through training camp, leading up to the beginning of the season.
NFL Films also produces theGreatest Moments series, which details classic games from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (decade); theLost Treasures series, which uses old NFL Films footage, which had previously never been shown on television, to look at football players, coaches, and referees; andNFL Films Presents, an umbrella title for other NFL Films productions that do not neatly fit an existing series (Katie Nolan serves as the current host ofNFL Films Presents).
NFL Films also produces theNFL Game of the Week, which showcases a previous week's game.ION Television purchased the rights to airGame of the Week during the 2007 season.[7]
Among other television programs, NFL Films is credited for producingNFL Total Access and much of theNFL Network's programming output.[8] NFL Films also has a dedicated channel on free over-the-top servicePluto TV that launched in August 2019.[9]
NFL Films' game highlights have been a staple ofInside the NFL for its entire run, starting atHBO in 1977 and going on to air onShowtime andParamount+ through to its current home atThe CW. NFL Films also produced for Showtime the five-part miniseriesFull Color Football: The History of the American Football League, which aired in the fall of 2009 as part of theAmerican Football League 50th anniversary celebration.
NFL Films produces an annual highlight film for each team every season, distributed byhome video. If a team had a good year, the film often revels in each victory, while breezing through, or skipping altogether, losses during the season. Inversely, if a team suffered through a poor season, the highlights commonly still attempt to show the team in a good light, however difficult that may be. Losses and pitiful play is commonly, and conveniently, edited out, leaving only isolated moments of success. This prompts the viewer to not realize how bad the team might have been. Most films conclude by portraying teams optimistically for the upcoming season, whether founded or not.[10]
The Sabols have used NFL Films to showcase their sense of humour. This is the case in the series titled,Football Follies. The Follies use blooper plays, such as fumbles, dropped passes, deflected or bobbled passes, players slipping and falling, mascots, the quarterback lining up behind the guard instead of the center, disorganization, outtakes and silly narration.
The presence of NFL Films' cameras allowed for the preservation of video footage from many of the NFL's 1960s-era games in an era when sports telecasts were either broadcast live without any recording or whose films and tapes weredestroyed and recycled for later use. This practice did not fully stop until1978.
Without the presence of NFL Films, there would be no surviving footage of the earlySuper Bowls. In comparison, other sports that lacked the film resources that the NFL had to have archives missing up through the 1970s, with much of the time before that preserved only by Canadian television broadcasters. For instance, inMajor League Baseball, thebroadcast of manyWorld Series games before1975 have been lost; nearly all broadcasts ofLeague Championship Series from the first series in 1969 to 1978 are unavailable.
Source:[11]
| Title | Years | Network | Co-production |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inside the NFL | 1977–present | HBO/Showtime/Paramount+/The CW | |
| Hard Knocks | 2001–present | HBO | HBO Sports |
| A Football Life | 2011–present | NFL Network | |
| Quarterback[12] | 2023 | Netflix | 2PM Productions andOmaha Productions |
| NFL Draft: The Pick Is In[13] | 2023–present | The Roku Channel | Skydance Sports |
| Receiver | 2024 | Netflix | Omaha Productions |
| Evolution of the Black Quarterback | Amazon Prime Video | Amazon MGM Studios, Smac Productions and Seven | |
| They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce | 2025–present | ESPN | Skydance Sports and Wooderboy Productions |
| WWE Unreal[14] | Netflix | Skydance Sports,Omaha Productions andWWE | |
| The Kingdom[15] | ESPN | Skydance Sports,Words + Pictures, 2PM Productions and Foolish Club Studios | |
| America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys | 2025 | Netflix | Skydance Sports and Stardust Flames Productions |
| The Home Team: NY Jets[16] | Amazon Prime Video | Prime Video Sports,Skydance Sports,New York Jets, VaynerWATT |
| Title | Release date | Distributor | Co-production |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fantasy Football | November 25, 2022 | Paramount+ | Nickelodeon Movies, Awesomeness Films,SpringHill Company and Genius Productions |
| The Perfect 10 | February 11, 2023 | Fox Sports Films | Fox Sports Films, Hall of Fame Village Media and H2H Productions |
| Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story | November 30, 2024 | Hallmark Channel | Skydance Sports andHallmark Media |
Although NFL Films earns more than $50 million in revenue a year and is expanding at a double digit rate, compared to the $18 billion in revenue that the NFL earns from television alone, most consider this to be minor.[4] The real value of NFL Films is how it packages and sells the game and many credit it as a key reason that the NFL has become the most watched sports league in the United States.
In addition to covering the National Football League, NFL Films has also ventured into other unrelated documentary films, such as documenting theMunich Olympics massacre for one ofNBC's Olympics telecasts and serving as back-up film photography for other major events, including theStanley Cup Finals (NHL Original Productions), theNBA Finals (NBA Entertainment) and theWorld Series (MLB Productions). It also produced the video forJourney's 1983 hit single "Faithfully". NFL Films also has worked withVolkswagen Group in producing Audi'sTruth in 24 series about Audi's efforts at the24 Hours of Le Mans using the signature style to package and sell the marque's efforts in France. NFL Films has also producedtelevision commercials forconvenience store chainSheetz.
The company has also done films for major college football programs, such asColorado State University; the company's 1977 film on CSU's football program usedJohn Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" as well as an instrumental cover ofThe Beatles' song "Tell Me What You See", and noted alumni of the team who had gone on to NFL careers, such as Bill Larson of theLions and Bill Kennedy of theColts, Kevin McClain of theRams, and Greg Stamrick of theOilers.
NFL Films' distinctive style has been parodied in numerous commercials, particularly for the NFL's sponsors, includingSprint Nextel andBurger King.
NFL Films has won 112Sports Emmys.[18]
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Sam Spence was long involved in a controversial situation with the NFL regarding the rights to perform or use his music in any media outlets.[19] In an interview, Spence reported he was convinced to sign a contract that relinquished all of the rights to his music to NFL Films under the promise that the League would return the document to him. Spence alleged that NFL Films claimed that his music was "stolen" and signing the document would empower them to protect the music in court.
NFL Films operates its own in-house 16mm and 35mm Color Negative Processing Lab. This enables the film that is shot at each game to be rushed back to the Mt. Laurel facility and processed immediately so as to give the production team the maximum amount of time to produce its weekly shows.
The lab is open to the public for development needs. Clients include feature length and short films shot on location in Philadelphia as well as students at local universities.
The current lab is the third incarnation. The original lab was located in a building next to NFL Films original offices at 230 N 13th St in Philadelphia. The second lab was housed in the center of the NFL Films offices at 330 Fellowship Rd in Mt. Laurel, NJ. That entire one-story building has since been razed and replaced with a modern 4 story office building.
The third lab is located at the NFL Films current location in the Bishop's Gate industrial park in Mt. Laurel behind a two-story glass wall. This allows visitors to the offices to see the inner workings of the entire processing lab. Those on morning tours can often watch as employees develop film for use in weekly shows.
NFL Films Lab is also in charge of the archiving and maintenance of the vault. Containing over 100 continuous years of football footage, the vault houses all of the film that NFL Films has shot or acquired from other sources in its entire history. Currently, NFL Films is in the process of re-transferring all of its footage into high-definition format, although the original film will always be kept as it's likely to outlast tape medium in terms of degradation.
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