NFL Football 101: September 2007

NFL Network

Yet again, the NFL, who never fails to earn its mark as the "No Fun League", dropped the ball this year, as they introduced new policies to control the media.

In essence, the new rule limits media outlets other than sites directly owned by NFL franchises to just forty five seconds of total video coverage from inside any NFL property (stadiums and practice sites) per day. Any such video coverage can only be archived for a total of twenty four hours before it must be removed.

Regardless of the coverage, the video must direct the viewer to visit NFL.com or the team website for more information.

Much of this has been a result of the development of the NFL Network on cable, and their ability to control the message, break the news, and become a messenger for the league.

Last year the NFL severely limited local media reporting from the sidelines. Surprisingly, that has been relaxed for 2007, so let's hope that the league has the same reaction to this new rule after a year of trial.

Visit Fan's Edge for Quality NFL Jerseys and More!

Labels: NFL Network

nfl films

In 1962 NFL Films was created by Ed Sabol, a seasoned coat salesman and former vaudeville singer. It all started when Sabol paid $3,000 for the rights to film the 1962 NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants.

Sabol was soon editing his game footage into feature-length productions and showing them at the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. The stylistic hallmarks of NFL Films quickly emerged: microphone wearing coaches and players, slow-motion photography, blooper segments, and melodramatic narration like "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field."

NFL Films has sent at least two camera operators to every regular and postseason game for the last forty five years. After watching a documentary with footage from almost five decades of NFL Films' output, you start to think that the Sabols are the reason football is the most-watched sport in America. "Before we started, the NFL had a tradition like baseball has a tradition," Steve Sabol says. "What we did was give football a mythology."

Visit Fan's Edge for Quality NFL Jerseys and More!

Labels: nfl films