Part 4: NFL Network, Run By Three Stooges, Needs Serious Changes
By Jim Conroy
NFL Films music mostly composed by Sam Spence is synonymous with the NFL and NFL Films. Courtesy bing images and the NFL.
Bring Back The Legendary Music Of Sam Spence
Has anyone been able to create any music that resonates so well with NFL Football since Sam Spence? No. And there is no debate. It is not even close. Spence’s music struck a chord with anyone who ever heard it and the NFL is synonymous with it. I have never heard anyone say they don’t like it. In fact it is still talked about reverently today. This is the one huge mistake NFL Films made before the hiring of Steve Bornstein. In the early 1980’s they got away from the Spence themed music and began creating synthesizer music of American pop songs like: “Ride Like the Wind” By Christopher Cross and since has morphed into something uninspiring and undefined. I never understood the change.
Sam Spence the creator of the great NFL Films music still composes music for television shows in Germany. Time to bring Spence back into the fold of the NFL Films family to create new music. Courtesy bing images.
Bring Back Sam Spence To Create New Music For The NFL
Sam Spence resides in Germany where many of the world’s best symphonies and orchestras are located. By all reports, Spence at 86, is still creating theme music for shows including American television. Bring Spence back to add new music to the NFL Films music library before it is too late. Also this would be a great opportunity to package and sell all of Sam Spence’s NFL music. Some of it already has, but it has been haphazard. There are literally volumes and volumes of his NFL Films music that is not available to the public. There are also other composers like Weber and Hermann who have contributed some excellent music as well that most likely gets confused as being Spence’s music.
What Steelers fan wouldn’t pay $10 to have a copy of the Immaculate Reception game or any Steelers game from the past? The NFL is missing out on a huge opportunity to make a tremendous profit and fans are missing out on great memories of their favorite teams because the NFL doesn’t package and sell older games. Courtesy NBC and bing images.
Package And Sell Classic NFL Football Games
This is an untapped market that the NFL/NFL Films has not entered. There is a whole game trading business going on with NFL fans that trade and in some cases sell DVD’s recordings of the actual games, as they took place on television, that go as far back as the 1960’s. That is what is out there in the NFL DVD game trading world. Who knows how much more the NFL or the networks actually have as far as the actual network broadcast of NFL games than what is in the hands of these DVD game trading individuals?
The NFL should package and sell any game they have that is over ten years old at an affordable price. Fans would love to have these games of their favorite teams, especially the ones that bring back memories. People would purchase entire seasons of their favorite team or as a gift for someone else. How many copies of the Immaculate Reception game would be purchased by Steelers fans? For something that costs around a dollar to mass produce and package, a DVD of that game or any other game that sells for $10-$15 would be a huge profit for the NFL. It could be sold in stores, the NFL website and in stadiums.
Jerome Bettis rushed for 140 yards as the Steelers beat the Giants 33-30 on Saturday December 18, 2004. The NFL Needs to go back to playing on Saturdays by adding 3 games the last three weeks of December. Courtesy Bleacher Report.
Bring Back the Saturday Afternoon Games in December
I loved those Saturday afternoon games in December. After the first weekend in December there are no more college football games. In December there is basically no football on Saturdays, its desolate. Why? It makes no sense. It is cold for a lot of the country and people are cooped up. This is the NFL Networks opportunity to promote the NFL by separating 3 more games each week from the Sunday pack by showcasing individual teams for the last 3 weeks of December (weeks 14, 15,16): 12:30 game, 4:00 game and an 8:00 game. I cannot believe the NFL does not take advantage of this. Instead we get repeats all day long on the NFL Network of the Cowboys Giants game from the year prior.
How NFL Films fans feel about the way Goodell is letting NFL Network CEO Steve Bornstein ruin the NFL Network and NFL Films. Courtesy bing images.
The NFL Network Blueprint, Roger That?
Ok Goodell. There you have it. My plan to fix the NFL Network and you didn’t have to pay me 12 million or whatever Steve Bornstein doesn’t earn per year. Ironically there were 10 ideas which were not planned by me. Maybe as CEO Steve Bornstein’s last bit of business, he can order one last episode of his favorite show titled: “The Top 10 Ways To Fix The God Awful NFL Network”. Now that is something that I would watch repeats of.
The NFL Network is what you get when you have knuckleheads like Goodell, Bornstein and Katz modeling it after ESPN. Only something the original Three Stooges might have actually done but then again, they eventually would have figured it out to leave NFL Films alone to run by itself. Courtesy bing images.
The NFL Network Has Been Stooge Like: All Pain…No Gain
In part 1 of this piece I wrote how I used to wish for things when I was younger and sometimes those things eventually came true. When I was growing up NFL Films became imprinted on my soul. I couldn’t get enough of NFL Films and I always, always wished for an NFL Films channel. In 2003 I thought that wish had come true but then soon realized it was actually a nightmare. A ten-year recurring nightmare that is slowly sucking the soul out of me. The NFL Network has turned into ESPN right before my eyes. The NFL Network is not and should not be ESPN. As Harry Kalas so eloquently stated every week for years: “This is the NFL”!
Part 1 was printed on 7/06/13 about the evolution of NFL Films and how incredible the company was before the NFL Network came into existence in 2003 and took over NFL Films.
Part 2 which was printed on (07/13/13) focused on the reasons why the NFL has botched its network, wiped its feet on the history of the NFL, NFL Films fans and the NFL Films Company (which the NFL owns) and its employees who very may well be the people most responsible for turning the NFL into the conglomerate machine it is today.