NFL Network Is Slowly Killing NFL Films

I've always had a love for history. From California history to world history. I love it all. I especially love sports history. That's why I always loved NFL Films. Where else could you learn about the "Ice Bowl" or the "Immaculate Reception"? NFL Films also had their follies series which I loved. So that's why it makes me sad to read an article about the slow death of NFL Films by the NFL Network.

Its budget has been slashed, its workforce has been gutted by two rounds of layoffs and buyouts, and it essentially has been reduced to an assembly line for cheap, quick-turnaround content for the NFL Network, which, 8 years into Bornstein's tenure, remains barely watchable.

Most of the signature programming that made Films so distinctive has been eliminated by Bornstein/Katz because it was determined to be either too costly or too yesterday or both.

Leave it to a couple of ESPN rejects to slowly kill NFL Films. I'm surprised Mark Shapiro isn't running the NFL Network.


In the long article on philly.com we learn that the Sabol's have less and less control over NFL Films than they used to have.

For much of its existence, Films had enjoyed almost complete autonomy. "It was the secret to success," Ed Sabol said in a recent interview with the Daily News. "They left us completely alone. I took it for granted."

We also learn that the NFL Films wasn't exactly making money and that Steve Sabol isn't exactly the greatest businessman. 

Said Sabol: "I have no business sense. None. I'm the creative leader."

The NFL never cared whether Films made money. But when Bornstein and Katz arrived, it suddenly started caring how much it was losing. Katz wouldn't say how much that was, but according to another league executive with knowledge of Films' finances, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million a year.

Then you learn that the NFL Network couldn't have been stationed with NFL Films but because Bornstein didn't want to move and because for whatever reason the NFL Network didn't want to hire someone else to run their new Network from the East Coast.

"That was good because nobody cared about anything but the creative product, but it had gotten a little out of control,'' he said. "So now we know how much film we shoot. Now we know what it costs to do certain things. And we make smart decisions."

Not always. The NFL made a really dumb - and costly - decision in 2003 when it started NFL Network. A year earlier, Films had moved into a brand new, 214,000-square foot headquarters in Mount Laurel that cost the league $45 million to build.

There was plenty of room at Films to house the new network - the entire third floor of the building still is unoccupied. But when the league was courting the Los Angeles-based Bornstein, he made it clear that he and his wife weren't interested in relocating. Rather than hire somebody else, the league acquiesced and agreed to put the network in Bornstein's back yard.

The only words I can describe this situation is, "what a collective disaster". Just a disaster from everyone involved. Which is really sad when you think about it because the NFL Films and Network should have worked great together. Instead you have one branch concerned about the bottom line while the other branch is concerned about the art of their program with a 3,000 mile gap between the two. Disaster. 

(Via Philly.com)