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As the Summer of Sports enters August, about now something will grab hold of the attention of fans in the world's most coveted media, entertainment & sports market and never let go for at least part of the next seven months. Of course, it's the National Football League and the 32 teams are now in the early stages of training camp, with preseason games to begin shortly being scheduled around those two-a-days and of course kickoff in less than 50 days. And this weekend, the NFL begins its 2015 campaign with the Hall of Fame Game and the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Canton, OH.
All summer long here on DCBLOG, we have covered summer's big sporting events during what has been a very momentous summer. And in proof of our Aussie Rules post last week, we're also putting a spotlight on sports that, in such a broad but somewhat picky country like the U.S., would otherwise not be given the kind of proper coverage and respect they deserve due to the dominance of the four major pro sports and a few other things. But now, we present this site's first post relating to this national passion sports fans have...but since everyone knows about the game of football, we'll focus in on a treasure of the sports media world.
Just a 16-mile, half-hour's drive from Philadelphia brings you east across the Delaware River to Mount Laurel, NJ, and there lies the home of its best-known employer. It's been 53 years since a company that started out as just a weekend hobby began to architect the way many of us experience America's most-popular sport. A slogan on a wall inside its 200,000 sq. ft. headquarters reads, "Keepers of the Flame," and in this rapidly-growing sports media landscape, one thing has stood the test of time over the course of the past five decades.
Since its formation in the early '60s, NFL Films has become the gold standard in sports filmmaking, and one of sports media's most renowned storytellers. With a formula established by the Sabol family that has worked for them ever since even before there was even a Super Bowl, they have created an art form in mixing great cinematography of a fast-moving sport with perfect narration, a well-timed musical soundtrack, and a touch of ballet and opera. They have also been the backbone of the NFL's ancillary programming efforts outside of game telecasts and even of its own 24/7 network, and have done so much to help bring a new audience to a sport now America's most popular.
