NFL Films

Motion picture company owned by the National Football League

NFL Films

Formerly| Blair Motion Pictures (1962–1965)
Founded| 1962; 63 years ago (1962)
Founder| Ed Sabol
Headquarters|

Mount Laurel, New Jersey

United States

Parent| National Football League
Website| Official website

NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films,[1] is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows. Founded as Blair Motion Pictures by Ed Sabol in 1962 and run by his son Steve 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 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

## Founding

[edit]

Former NFL Films logo

Founder Ed Sabol was a World War II veteran who worked selling topcoats after returning to the United States. In his spare time, he used a motion picture camera, received as a wedding gift, to record his son Steve's high 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 the 1962 NFL championship game for $5,000, double the bid for the 1961 championship game.[2] 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 $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 rival American Football League to merge 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 the American Football League (AFL) in 1968, 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 the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a major contributor to the National Football League. Sabol died on February 9, 2015, at his home in Arizona.

## Style

[edit]

Much has been made of the Films style. Salon.com television critic, Matt Zoller Seitz, has called NFL Films "the greatest in-house P.R. machine in pro sports history...an outfit that could make even a tedious stalemate seem as momentous as the battle for the Alamo."[6]

NFL Films productions follow certain patterns. Film is mostly used. One camera is dedicated entirely to slow motion shots and microphones 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 the Philadelphia metropolitan area, with well-known announcers such as John Facenda, Harry Kalas, Jefferson Kaye, Andy Musser, Jack Whitaker, William Woodson, and current announcer Scott Graham all having narrated NFL Films presentations. J.K. Simmons was tapped to narrate the company's one-hour recap of the 16–0 regular season of the 2007 New England Patriots, while actor Burt Lancaster was tabbed for narrations in 1969. Burl Ives was also called upon to narrate the 1971 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 the 1985, 2000, and 2001 Oakland Raiders season reviews being narrated by actor and former Raiders player Carl Weathers. Former Giant Frank Gifford periodically narrated New York Giants season reviews (notably the company's throwback-themed 2013 season recap) until he died in 2015, and ex-Giants teammate Pat Summerall narrated highlight films for many teams until he died in 2013.

New England Patriots play-by-play announcer Gil Santos narrated the year-in-review films of the 1974, 1976, and 1978 seasons, and New Orleans Saints films from their inception in 1967 through 1979 were narrated by Don Criqui, who called Saints games for the NFL on CBS in the team's early years, along with radio announcers Al Wester and Wayne Mack. Longtime KDKA radio & KDKA-TV personality Larry Richert often narrated films of the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to becoming the team's PA announcer at Acrisure Stadium and continues to do so today. (Richert is also the brother-in-law to Miami Dolphins legend Dan 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 called tight on the spiral, a reference to the frequently-used slow-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 dubs sound 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, notably Sam Spence, Johnny Pearson (whose "Heavy Action" became the theme for Monday 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 and Tom Hedden.

The company's use of KPM Musichouse (now KPM Music) tracks also notably included Syd Dale; tracks include "Maelstrom" for the company's 1968 Minnesota Vikings season highlight reel and also the psychedelic-flavored jazz track "Artful Dodger" on the film recap of Super Bowl V, specifically during the montage which shows Johnny Unitas's 75-yard touchdown pass to John Mackey which was tipped in flight by Eddie Hinton and Mel 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 mimic ballet, opera, and epic battles. Among the company's most famous creation is the poem and accompanying music cue "The Autumn Wind", which have become official themes for the Las Vegas Raiders.

## Television programs

[edit]

One of NFL Films' most popular series is Hard 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 the Greatest Moments series, which details classic games from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (decade); the Lost Treasures series, which uses old NFL Films footage, which had previously never been shown on television, to look at football players, coaches, and referees; and NFL 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 of NFL Films Presents).

NFL Films also produces the NFL Game of the Week, which showcases a previous week's game. ION Television purchased the rights to air Game of the Week during the 2007 season.[7]

Among other television programs, NFL Films is credited for producing NFL Total Access and much of the NFL Network's programming output.[8] NFL Films also has a dedicated channel on free over-the-top service Pluto TV that launched in August 2019.[9]

NFL Films' game highlights have been a staple of Inside the NFL for its entire run, starting at HBO in 1977 and going on to air on Showtime and Paramount+ through to its current home at The CW. NFL Films also produced for Showtime the five-part miniseries Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League, which aired in the fall of 2009 as part of the American Football League 50th anniversary celebration.

NFL Films produces an annual highlight film for each team every season, distributed by home 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 were destroyed and recycled for later use. This practice did not fully stop until 1978.

Without the presence of NFL Films, there would be no surviving footage of the early Super 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, in Major League Baseball, the broadcast of many World Series games before 1975 have been lost; nearly all broadcasts of League Championship Series from the first series in 1969 to 1978 are unavailable.

### Current programming

[edit]

Source:[11]

* A Football Life
* NFL Films Presents
* Inside the NFL
* NFL Turning Point
* NFL Gameday All-Access
* NFL Matchup
* Peyton's Places
* NFL Icons, released through Epix on October 2, 2021[12]
* Good Morning Football
* Quarterback
* Receiver

### Upcoming programming

[edit]

* Quarterback[13]

## Success

[edit]

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 the Munich Olympics massacre for one of NBC's Olympics telecasts and serving as back-up film photography for other major events, including the Stanley Cup Finals (NHL Original Productions), the NBA Finals (NBA Entertainment) and the World Series (MLB Productions). It also produced the video for Journey's 1983 hit single "Faithfully". NFL Films also has worked with Volkswagen Group in producing Audi's Truth in 24 series about Audi's efforts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans using the signature style to package and sell the marque's efforts in France. NFL Films has also produced television commercials for convenience store chain Sheetz.

The company has also done films for major college football programs, such as Colorado State University; the company's 1977 film on CSU's football program used John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" as well as an instrumental cover of The 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 the Lions and Bill Kennedy of the Colts, Kevin McClain of the Rams, and Greg Stamrick of the Oilers.

NFL Films' distinctive style has been parodied in numerous commercials, particularly for the NFL's sponsors, including Sprint Nextel and Burger King.

NFL Films has won 112 Sports Emmys.[14]

## Music rights controversy with Sam Spence

[edit]

This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

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.[15] 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.

## Albums

[edit]

* The Power and the Glory: The Original Music & Voices of NFL Films (1998)
* Autumn Thunder: 40 Years of NFL Films Music (2004)
* NFL Country (1996)
* Music from National Football League Films, LP NFL-1, c. 1970s.

## Films

[edit]

* Truth in 24 (2008)
* Lombardi (2011)
* Fantasy Football (2022)
* The Perfect 10 (2023)
* Kelce (2023)

## NFL Films Lab

[edit]

A section of the NFL Films climate-controlled film vault in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. The vault houses all of the film in NFL Films' possession.

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.

## See also

[edit]

* American football portal

* Football Follies
* Sam Spence

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "NFL Films Gets Voice-Over Artist's Harassment Claims Tossed". Bloomberg Law. November 15, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
2. ^ a b Ed Sabol: A Football Life television program, 2011
3. ^ Rebecca Leung (December 5, 2007). "NFL Films, Inc". 60 Minutes. CBS News. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013.
4. ^ a b "This Is NFL Films". Fortune. 2010-12-14. Archived from the original on 2005-12-18. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
5. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.[dead YouTube link]
6. ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (2011-02-07) The Super Bowl's bloated, chaotic spectacle, Salon.com
7. ^ ION Media Networks Secures Rights to Air 2007 Season of "NFL Game of the Week" Produced by NFL Films, Yahoo!, September 10, 2007
8. ^ List of programs offered by NFL Films Archived 2007-11-05 at the Wayback Machine.
9. ^ Hayes, Dade (2019-08-20). "NFL And Pluto TV Team For Streaming Channel "Celebrating" Pro Football's Past". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
10. ^ "2006 Bears: All For One". National Football League. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
11. ^ "They Call It Pro Football". Official Blog of NFL Films NFL Films Productions. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
12. ^ "NFL Icons". Epix. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
13. ^ Porter, Rick (February 22, 2023). "Netflix, NFL Films Team for 'Quarterback' Docuseries". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
14. ^ "NFL Films Celebrates Five Emmy Wins". NFL Films. 2013-05-08. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
15. ^ Alexander Klein, "The Sam Spence Case: The shocking truth about production companies and royalties," Film Score Monthly, April 2013.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

National Football League

2025 season

American Football Conference

| East| North| South| West

|
|
|

* Buffalo Bills
* Miami Dolphins
* New England Patriots
* New York Jets

* Baltimore Ravens
* Cincinnati Bengals
* Cleveland Browns
* Pittsburgh Steelers

* Houston Texans
* Indianapolis Colts
* Jacksonville Jaguars
* Tennessee Titans

* Denver Broncos
* Kansas City Chiefs
* Las Vegas Raiders
* Los Angeles Chargers

National Football Conference

| East| North| South| West

|
|
|

* Dallas Cowboys
* New York Giants
* Philadelphia Eagles
* Washington Commanders

* Chicago Bears
* Detroit Lions
* Green Bay Packers
* Minnesota Vikings

* Atlanta Falcons
* Carolina Panthers
* New Orleans Saints
* Tampa Bay Buccaneers

* Arizona Cardinals
* Los Angeles Rams
* San Francisco 49ers
* Seattle Seahawks

| Seasons|

* Seasons
* by team
* Preseason
* Hall of Fame Game
* American Bowl
* Regular season
* Kickoff
* Monday Night Football
* Thanksgiving games
* Christmas games
* Playoffs
* list of games
* streaks
* droughts
* AFC Championship
* NFC Championship
* Super Bowl
* champions
* quarterbacks
* Pro Bowl

|

History|

* League history
* executive history
* championship history
* Timeline
* defunct franchises
* moves and mergers
* NFL in Los Angeles
* Eastern and Western Conferences (1933–1969)
* Century Division
* All-America Football Conference (1946–1949)
* American Football League (1960–1969)
* playoffs
* merger
* NFL Championship (1920–1969)
* Playoff Bowl
* NFL records
* individual
* quarterback
* team
* Super Bowl
* all-time win–loss
* last undefeated
* Tied games
* Canceled games
* Nicknamed games and plays
* Controversies
* League of Denial
* List of players with CTE
* List of proposed NFL teams

International|

* International Series
* London
* Toronto
* Bills Series
* NFL Europe
* Non-American players
* International Player Pathway

Business|

* Team owners
* Properties
* Management Council
* Competition committee
* NFLPA
* Collective bargaining agreement
* NFL Players Inc.
* NFL Referees Association
* Lockouts
* Valuations
* Television
* NFL Network
* NFL RedZone
* NFL Films
* In Canada
* Antitrust cases
* Radovich v. National Football League
* Mid-South Grizzlies v. National Football League
* American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League

Related|

* Head coaches
* current
* wins leaders
* playoff record
* Starting quarterbacks
* Officials
* Stadiums
* chronology
* Awards
* All-Pro
* Hall of Fame
* members
* Player conduct
* suspensions
* Combine
* Draft
* Training camp
* NFL Foundation
* NFL Alumni
* Next Gen Stats

Culture|

* Mascots
* Nicknames
* Uniform numbers
* Color Rush
* Rivalries
* Cheerleading
* Conflicts
* Retired numbers

* v
* t
* e

NFL on television and radio

Broadcast
partners|

* ABC
* CBS
* ESPN
* Fox
* NBC
* Sky Sports

Former partners
DuMont
Sports Network
TNT

Streaming coverage|

* ESPN+
* Netflix
* NFL+
* Paramount+ (CBS Sports)
* Peacock (NBC Sports)
* Prime Video

Monday Night
Football|

* History
* Monday Night Countdown

Results
1970–2005
2006–2019
2020–present
2015–present (ABC)

Sunday Night
Football|

* ESPN
* NBC
* TNT

Results
ESPN
NBC
TNT

Pregame shows|

* CBS
* The NFL Today
* Fox
* Fox NFL Kickoff
* Fox NFL Sunday
* ESPN
* Sunday NFL Countdown
* Monday Night Countdown
* NBC
* The NFL on NBC pregame show
* Football Night in America

NFL Network|

* List of programs
* NFL AM
* NFL GameDay
* NFL Replay
* NFL Total Access
* The Timeline
* Finding Giants

Thursday Night Football
Results (2006–present)
2007 New England Patriots–New York Giants game
Miracle in Motown

NFL Network Exclusive Game Series

NFL Films|

* America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions
* Football Follies
* A Football Life
* Hard Knocks
* Inside the NFL
* NFL Dream Season
* NFL Films Game of the Week
* NFL Matchup
* NFL Top 10
* NFL Top 100
* The Perfect 10
* Quarterback

Other programs|

* DuMont
* Football Sidelines
* Football This Week
* Pro Football Highlights
* ESPN
* NFL Live
* NFL Primetime
* Nickelodeon
* NFL on Nickelodeon
* NFL Slimetime
* Super Bowl programming
* Prime Video
* NFL on Prime Video
* ITV
* The NFL Show
* Sky
* NFL on Sky Sports

Radio broadcast
partners|

* Compass Media
* ESPN
* Sports USA
* Westwood One

| Defunct networks|

* Mutual
* NBC

|

Secondary partners|

* Absolute Radio 90s (UK)
* NFL+
* Sirius XM
* TSN Radio (Canada)

Local broadcasters|

* Buffalo Bills Radio Network
* Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network
* Cleveland Browns Radio Network
* Dallas Cowboys Radio Network
* Denver Broncos Radio Network
* Detroit Lions Radio Network
* Packers Radio Network
* Jaguars Radio Network
* Las Vegas Raiders Radio Network
* New England Patriots Radio Network
* New York Giants Radio Network
* New York Jets broadcasters
* Pittsburgh Steelers Radio Network
* Titans Radio Network

Broadcasters
by event|

* NFL draft

| Pre-AFL–NFL merger|

* AFL All-Star Game
* NFL Championship Game
* Playoff Bowl

|

Postseason events|

* Super Bowl (lead-out programs)

TV technology|

* 1st & Ten
* FoxBox
* Instant replay
* NFL Sunday Ticket
* Telestrator

Other|

* Announcerless game
* Muppet Night Football
* Canadian broadcasts
* History
* 1950s
* 1960s
* 1970s
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s
* Doubleheader (television)
* Super Bowl TV ratings (lead-out programs)
* Timeline of American Football on UK television

| TV markets|

* 1994–1996 U.S. TV realignment
* List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises
* Cable TV NFL over-the-air affiliates

|

Broadcast policies|

* Blackout policies
* Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961

Network|

* ABC/ESPN
* CBS
* Fox
* NBC
* NFL Network
* Westwood One

* v
* t
* e

NBC Sports Group

Current programs|

| Sports on NBC|

* Big Ten Saturday Night
* Boxing on NBC
* College Basketball on NBC
* Cycling on NBC
* Golf on NBC
* NASCAR on NBC
* NFL on NBC
* Football Night in America
* NBC Sunday Night Football
* Notre Dame Football on NBC
* Tennis on NBC
* Thoroughbred Racing on NBC
* Premier League on NBC
* history

|

Sports on other networks|

* Golf Central
* Premier Lacrosse League
* USA Sevens
* USA Rugby League
* Men in Blazers
* WWE SmackDown

National channels|

* Golf Channel
* Olympic Channel
* minority stake
* MLB Network
* NHL Network

NBC Sports Regional Networks|

* Bay Area (45%)
* Boston
* California
* Philadelphia
* SNY (8%)

Streaming affiliation|

* Peacock

USA Network|

* NASCAR
* NCAAM
* NCAAF
* Golf

Occasional programming|

* NBC Olympics
* NBC Sports
* NBC-Telemundo Deportes

Occasional broadcasters|

* NBC
* Bravo
* CNBC
* MSNBC
* (Spanish-language)
* Universo
* Telemundo

Other properties|

* All-American Bowl
* Alli Sports
* American Century Championship
* NBC Sports Digital
* GolfNow
* NBC Sports Gold
* NBC Sports Live Extra
* Rotoworld Fantasy Sports
* profootballtalk.com
* Xfinity Live! Philadelphia
* Sky Sports

Former programs|

* 36
* American Football League
* Arena Football League
* Baseball Night in America
* Bowling on NBC
* CFL on NBC
* The Dan Patrick Show
* FIFA World Cup on NBC
* Formula One on NBC
* Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
* Hambletonian
* IndyCar Series on NBC
* The 'Lights
* MLB Game of the Week
* Major League Baseball on NBC
* history
* Major League Baseball: An Inside Look
* MLB Sunday Leadoff
* Match of the Day
* MLS on NBC
* NBA on NBC
* WNBA
* NBA Showtime
* NBC College Football Game of the Week
* Bowl games
* NHL on NBC
* NHL Game of the Week
* Wednesday Night Rivalry
* WWE NXT
* WWE Raw
* Sportsworld
* Red Bull Global Rallycross
* NBC SportsTalk
* Premier Boxing Champions

Parent: NBCUniversal

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI

National|

* United States

39°57′33″N 74°53′52″W﻿ / ﻿39.9591°N 74.8977°W﻿ / 39.9591; -74.8977
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template