NFL Films is scoring high - NFL Films Inc

Nation's Business, Sept, 1988 by Glen Macnow

The company is less reluctant to talk about its work. Its flagship production is HBO's "This Is the NFL," which will soon begin its 25th season and is the longest-running series on cable television. Seven other shows run on cable or in syndication, and NFL Films also produces a weekly radio show.

The company's ninth regular television show will premier this fall on ESPN, the all-sports cable network. "The Dream Season," conceived by Steve Sabol, will feature hypothetical games between teams drawn from 20 of the greatest NFL teams of all time. Naturally, it will lead to an all-time, all-league championship game, and, naturally, NFL films will sponsor a fan contest to pick a name for the final game.

Sabol is looking for a computer company eager to pay for the exposure of programming "The Dream Season."

But how does one visually create a game that never was? When the 1969 New York Jets challenge the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, how will NFL Films show Joe Namath and Joe Montana tossing the long bombs that the computer programs?

No problem. NFL Films' most-prized possession is its archives, an enormous room filled wall-to-wall with reels of film documenting every down of every game played in the NFL since 1948 and every championship game since the first in 1933. There is even earlier footage, including an 1894 contest between Princeton and Rutgers--Thomas Edison's third film.

Those archives constitute "the soul of professional football," the stored treasures of "football's wine cellar," Sabol says. "No endeavor in human history is as completely documented on film as professional football. And we're just honored to be the keepers of the archives."

The archives are computerized, so that within a few minutes, Sabol can sit before a giant viewing screen and watch Bronko Nagurski's final run from scrimmage of Joe Theismann's first NFL pass. The 2,359 runs of Jim Brown's career could be called up on the screen in about an hour.

The possibilities do not stop there. When Alka-Seltzer wanted a commercial that showed fans freezing in the stands, it called NFL Films, which--for a fee--punched a few commands into the computer and produced dozens of sneezing, shivering fans.

The company also has used its archives to produce films for former players desiring taped highlights of their careers. NFL Films has produced the tapes for players ranging from former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp--a Republican U.S. representative--to Ray Schoenke, a lesser known offensive guard for the Washington Redskins. While Kemp was widely covered in his highly visible quarterback position, "Schoenke was difficult," says Steve Sabol. "There were not exactly miles of footage on old No. 72."

These days, the fastest-growing segment of NFL Films' business is the home video market. The company issues a glossy catalog of its products, and its success is indicated in the Billboard Magazine charts, which proclaim it as the producer of some of the bestselling sports videos ever.

"When people started buying VCRs," says Steve Sabol, "we knew it would be unbelievably good for us. But retailers felt no one would pay for sports that they got to see for free on TV, so they would not put us on the shelf.