During the 7 year process of personally transferring 2300 hours of vintage sports, comedy and music videos from Sony BetaMax cassettes to digital….while trying to identify each event / program and it’s participants has been a daunting task to say the least….and when you spend that kind of time in process and application…..even though it is a labor of love….then you tend to have your favorite providers of sports, comedy and music content.
I said all of that to say this…..at the top of this lil ole chiweenie Sportsphile’s list of providers of content are the films provided by NFL Films……as I often express my gratitude to Father Ed Sabol and son, Steve Sabol…..the real guts behind every wonderfully produced film that they produced…..cuz there isn’t a one of their films that I haven’t watched over and over. NFL Films wrote the book on filming an NFL game ……and have remained the gold standard since….with a significant part of that standard of excellence coming from two men featured in so many of those NFL Films…..Harry Kalas, the host of the majority of their films (along with Steve Sabol)…..and the incredible voice of Ed Facenda, bringing the verbal genius to the visual genius of each film. Simply put, Harry Kalas was a special football color commentator with a wonderful flair as an observer of the game and the players that he covered….when combined in film with the unique voice and eloquent poetic delivery of Ed Facenda’s voice as he described the action in each film….for together they performed magic every time that they teamed-up on NFL Films.
You will find my opinions to be true in this NFL Film video herewith….as Kalas and Sabol host the NFL Films 1985 All Pro Team defensive backs of Eagles Safety Wes Hopkins, Cardinals Strong Safety Leonard Smith, 49’ers Cornerback Eric Wright and Rams Cornerback LeRoy Irvin…..followed by the running backs of Bears Walter Payton, 49’ers Roger Craig and Raiders Marcus Allen….in this piece of video magic provided by NFL Films…..the best of the best in producing sports films.
