National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
How many professional sports leagues can pinpoint the exact spot, the exact day, even the exact time they “arrived?” The National Football League can: Yankee Stadium, December 28, 1958, 4:51 PM. Fifty years ago this December 28 — the final day of the 2008 NFL regular season — what would become known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played” took place — the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants at Yankee Stadium in New York City. And when Colts fullback Alan Ameche burst through a hole for a one-yard touchdown …read more

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Dallas Cowboys debuts tonight on HBO. The first sports-based reality series — and one of the fastest-turnaround reality series — kicks off its fourth season at 10 p.m. ET. Subsequent hour-long episodes air each Wednesday at the same time, culminating in the September 3 season finale, with regular encore plays on Thursdays. HBO playdates for episode one: August 7 (3:30 p.m., midnight), August 8 (11:00 p.m.), August 9 (10:00 a.m., 11:40 p.m.), August 10 (11:30 a.m., 11:15 p.m.) and August 11 (10:30 a.m.). HBO2 playdates for episode one: August …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

The Dallas Cowboys‘ 2008 training camp in Oxnard, CA, will once again be featured as part of the HBO series Hard Knocks. With its reality TV appeal and rare insider access, Hard Knocks has easily been one of my all-time favorite television programs. It has not been a regular series, but NFL Films’ previous work with the Baltimore Ravens (2001) and Cowboys (2002) was brilliant. Sadly, last season’s return (they had mysteriously taken four years off) with the Kansas City Chiefs was forgettable.
Some people can’t miss an episode of Lost. Others wait all …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
There’s an interesting article in the new issue of Wired (issue 15.10, page 72) entitled “Instant Replay: NFL Films’ exhaustive archive is rushing into the digital age.” Did you know each season NFL Films’ collection grows by roughly 1,000 miles of 16-mm film?