ESPNization May Ruin NFL Films - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

If you're one of us who feels like ESPN jumped the shark the day they started replacing highlights with the Budweiser Hot Seat and pre-planned "feuds" between Sean Salisbury and John Clayton, know that the same geniuses might be turning to another even more significant treasure.

According to the Philadelphia News, there is some thought around the NFL of phasing out or at least minimizing NFL Films to save money.

As the paper explains:

Steve Bornstein, the former ESPN chief who was brought in by the league to run NFL Media, which includes the NFL Network, NFL.com and NFL Films, has shown less and less interest in Films' signature programming, according to several league sources. He has indicated, the sources said, it's too expensive to make and that there isn't a market out there for it anymore.

"The shots that people associate with Films, those long, beautiful, super slo-mo shots of a spiraling football, the NFL Network people hate that," said a league executive familiar with the situation. "It's too slow for them.

"They're so into their mind-set. The people they've brought in [at NFL Network] are either from ESPN or 'Best Damn Sports Show.' And they have their idea of what's good television. It's a vastly different kind of thing than what NFL Films has produced."

Excuse me while I puke.

Bornstein denies that he has any such thoughts about NFL Films. But as the story points out, Steve Sabol's request to film further America's Games (one of the best shows on football every produced) was turned down. Bornstein also cancelled the Lost Treasure's series (which turned unused film from the NFL Films archives into fascinating new shows) and NFL Films Presents, a series which managed to turn little details of the NFL game, like the silent snap count, into gripping television.

The NFL Network also no longer airs the "Game of The Week." A show that used NFL Films footage to give the games a classic look with views and audio unseen anywhere else has been replaced by cutdown re-airs of the network broadcasts on Sunday (with a couple of post-game sound bites added in). So instead of a show well worth watching even if you watch every game of your favorite team, it was replaced with a show that was worthless is you've already seen the game.

It appears that the arrival of the NFL Network, instead of helping NFL Films, has hurt it. One can only hope that the struggles of the NFL Network to make money might eventually make the powers that be realize that NFL Films is the NFL and the NFL Network's greatest asset, much more than Total Access or Put Up Your Dukes.