For years, the NFL has playfully scoffed at conspiracy theories its drama is scripted.
Now, the league has hired some of the best writers in the entertainment industry to do just that.
The NFL is going Hollywood, looking to expand its audience with theatrical motion pictures and its first scripted streaming series. This isnโt just about using the names and logos of real NFL teams, but diving headlong into storytelling about the league in the form of upcoming movies โ one about John Madden, another a Christmas Day release about an unlikely hero for the New York Giants โ and โThe Land,โ a dramatic Hulu series centered on fictional characters and the Cleveland Browns starring Christopher Meloni, Mandy Moore and William H. Macy.
Itโs the next step in the partnership between the NFL and Skydance Sports, the forming of a premier content studio aimed at creating must-watch storytelling and attracting everyone from hardcore football fans to people who otherwise have no real interest in the game.
The NFL has long contended itโs the worldโs greatest reality show and the numbers support that. According to Sportico, NFL games were 84 of the top 100 most-watched television shows last year. And the year before, it was 93 of 100.
โWhen you have an audience as big as the NFLโs, there are a lot of different demographics to service and engage even more deeply,โ said Jason Reed, who heads Skydance Sports. โThose movies work as a fan service. They service towns, fans of those franchises, and they really connect. What they also do is pick up this other group of people who maybe wouldnโt watch a football game.โ
Pulling back the curtain on the league is a challenge. The NFL isnโt likely to sanction unflattering content, at least not much of it, yet the goal is to make the stories as realistic as possible. How will the writers handle issues such as concussions, drug use or domestic violence? That was addressed in a presentation at last monthโs owners meetings by JW Johnson of the Haslam Sports Group, who oversees the business strategy of the Browns.
โWe donโt want this to be โ no offense to our friends at ESPN โ a โPlaymakersโ situation,โ said Johnson, referring to the popular but short-lived series on the Cougars, a fictional football team, that explored mature themes and was canceled after one season after pressure from the NFL. โWe want this to be a really fan-friendly show that also has the authenticity of what happens in a locker room and on the field. Weโre very comfortable with it.โ
David Corenswet as โJohn Tuggleโ and Isabel May as as โKatieโ in Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story,โ from Paramount Pictures.
(Sarah Enticknap / Paramount Pictures)
Dan Fogelman, creator of โThis is Us,โ and a lifelong football fan, had long envisioned writing a dramatic series based on his favorite sport. That led to โThe Land,โ which began production last fall and does not have an official premiere date.
โWeโre not making this stuff up out of thin air,โ said Fogelman, who also created the Hulu series โParadise,โ a post-apocalyptic political thriller. โThe characters are flawed and they do bad things, but the NFL has been great about that. I was worried up top, and it just hasnโt been an issue because weโre not out there looking to be salacious. Weโre not trying to do ripped-from-the-headlines, crazy, exaggerated versions of reality. We want things that really happen, done accurately and in a cinematic way.โ
To that end, he brought in actual NFL players as consultants to help with the storylines and make sure the details make sense.
โWe had a bunch of NFL players come and visit us in our little office, and weโre on the second floor,โ he said. โSome of my heroes were in that room. I was genuinely concerned the floor was going to fall through.โ
Enter NFL Films, which for more than six decades has turned a violent sport into an art form, filling the frame with meticulous focus on a Matthew Stafford spiral โ and without the benefit of a second take. Those camera operators are heavily involved in the production of both the upcoming movies and the streaming series.
โThatโs our whole thing,โ Reed said. โHow do we support great filmmakers and make sure they know how to access the resources and expertise that NFL Films has developed over 60 years, and combine those two together? That, to me, is the secret sauce of the venture.โ
Whatโs more, what the father-and-son combination of Ed and Steve Sabol created in NFL Films provides an incredible library for future projects.
โThe well is infinite,โ said Jessica Boddy, vice president of commercial operations and business affairs for NFL Films. โWeโve only scratched the surface.โ
For Fogelman, โThe Landโ is scratching a creative itch heโs felt since childhood.
โIโve wanted to do this show for 20 years,โ he said. โIโm a failed athlete myself. My connection with my father growing up โ he worked a lot โ was I grew up in Pittsburgh as a Steelers fan and also migrated to New Jersey, where we became Giants fans. My dad would let me watch games with him if I was quiet and didnโt act goofy. We would also throw the football back and forth.
โNow, many decades later, my father is 83, and our connection is that we talk every Monday after Giants games. He now talks with my son and me. For me, football has been very much in the fabric of my life and my relationship with my friends. This has been something Iโve been chasing for a very long time.โ