Lost Treasures of NFL Films

In 1998, Phil Tuckett ran across an unprocessed negative from the 1964 preseason. Knowing he had a time capsule in his hands, Phil Tuckett suggested to NFL Films president Steve Sabol that they could produce an entire series filled with nothing but unused NFL Films footage. Thus Steve Sabol re-traces the beginning years of NFL Films (originally Blair Motion Pictures). Ed Sabol, Steve's (and NFL Films') father, recalls the drudgery of his first project: the 1962 NFL Championship. Despite several spoiled reels, he and Dan Endy were able to produce a 28-minute highlight film that impressed NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle immensely. With that, Ed and the rest of his camera crew were ready to shoot every game for every team, starting in 1964. Players from the mid-1960s are profiled, among them ""The Catawba Claw,"" alias Bucky Pope.

Steve Sabol recalls the haphazard beginnings of interviewing players for NFL Films. Features outtakes of interviews done with Willie Davis, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, and Bob Hayes. Toward the end of the program, Steve points out the dramatic upturn NFL Films took in 1966, when a film editor walked in, unannounced, and demonstrated film-editing breakthroughs that went into the film They Call It Pro Football.

Early player sound was not synchronized, demonstrating the novice nature of NFL Films in the mid-1960s. One breakthrough came when a rock-concert soundman came to the 1967 Baltimore Colts' training camp. Highlighting the never-before-seen footage in this program are shots taken from a Rams-Saints exhibition at Anaheim on August 2, 1967. It was the first time the New Orleans Saints took the field. Other new sound bytes include games filmed in Miami and Green Bay.

Steve Sabol brings to light old-style AFL highlight films, with a simplistic style that matched the early days of the struggling league. But the AFL successfully challenged the NFL in every respect. Beginning in 1968, NFL Films sent its crews (disguised in bright red ""AFL Films"" jackets) to cover every AFL game.

As the 1960s played itself out, the NFL measured change with a new breed of player, playing on newly-installed artificial turf. But there was still room for the established veterans, as unseen shots of Lou Saban and Bill Glass (among others) will attest. The program ends with the NFL Films crew in full swing, ready to cover the action, with a voice to match the drama of the game.