Nfl Films

No city revels in its past, or wallows in it, depending on your perspective, like Baltimore. So it's a given that television sets around town will be punched in to ESPN in the early hours of Monday morning.That's when a lovely tribute to Memorial Stadium, the great lady at the corner of East 33rd Street and Ellerslie Avenue, airs as a segment of "NFL Films Presents."The piece isn't long -- only about 10 minutes -- but it will give old-timers a reminder of how things here used to be and provide the younger generation a primer on the traditions of one of the venerable facilities in American sports.

With one week of Christmas shopping left, gifts for the hard-to-please sports fan can be difficult to come by, particularly if you don't know where to look.That's why we offer the sixth "Media Watch Holiday Gift Giving Guide," a peek at some of the more notable books, videos and multimedia items that could make solid stocking stuffers.At the top of this year's list is "And The Crowd Goes Wild," (Sourcebooks, $49.95, 180 pages) a fabulous coffee-table book that recounts 47 of the great sports moments of the past 68 years, with a narrative written by radio executive Joe Garner, a foreword from Hank Aaron and an afterword by Wayne Gretzky.

For the legion of Green Bay Packers fans who love to relive the team's glorious past, NFL Films has a treat ready for them Tuesday.In a 90-minute show on ESPN, NFL Films will re-create the Ice Bowl -- the 1967 NFL title game between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.This is part of a series NFL Films started two weeks ago with the game Baltimore fans want to forget -- Super Bowl III, when the New York Jets upset the Colts.The Ice Bowl was a more dramatic game. Super Bowl III is remembered for its historical significance because it gave status to the AFL, but it wasn't exciting.

For millions, football is a nobler pursuit than the hype-laden Sunday NFL overkill. Each week, through a favorite high school or college team, the game becomes a Friday and Saturday celebration of Americana, where disparate voices, both on the field and in the stands, come together on crisp fall days to celebrate the sport at its purest.That's the spirit behind a wonderful documentary, "Football America," which premieres tomorrow at 8 p.m. on TNT, with re-airs at 10 p.m. and midnight tomorrow, and further encores Monday and Oct. 25 at 10 p.m., and at midnight on Oct. 27.The two-hour film, as wryly narrated by noted actor James Coburn, explores the emotional hold football has on the country through nine separate stories that cover the American sensibility.

A seemingly innocuous four-minute piece on the reformation of former Dallas linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson airing on Monday's 6:30 p.m. and overnight "SportsCenters" may have dangerous repercussions.It was a thought-provoking story on how the gifted defender on the Cowboys teams of the 1970s has bounced back from acocaine addiction, but more interesting is where the piece came from.The story was reported and produced by NFL Films, a biased source, and raises questions about how closely intertwined the leagues and the networks should be.In many ways, the line between the networks and the leagues they cover has been blurred, if not directly crossed.

The Montana family huddled around the television set the other night in San Francisco to watch the NFL Films documentary on their husband, father and son, Joe, widely TC acclaimed as the greatest quarterback of all time.That is, everyone except the subject of the special, which premieres tonight (TNT, 8 o'clock, with repeats through the week)."I hate to hear my own voice, and I was watching the game," said Montana on a conference call yesterday. "I was peeking back and forth. It's tough to take.

Reading Time: Two Minutes.Talk about being ridiculous, those wowsers over at Major League Baseball Properties are sending out letters to amateur leagues informing them they no longer will be permitted to use the names of big-league teams on their uniforms. . . unless, of course, they're purchased from manufacturers licensed by MLBP."It's to protect the major-league clubs' rights to their valuable trademarks," says a spokesman. It sure sounds like a grab for the ol' folding green, doesn't it?

Sunday's Super Bowl pre-game show commences at 3:30 p.m. That's a full two hours and 48 minutes before the opening kickoff, roughly the equivalent of how long the ground war lasted in the Persian Gulf a year ago."We've got more than enough to fill," says the show's producer Eric Mann. "Why, we've got three features that aren't even in the format." One's about the time Marv Levy took the trash out and locked himself out of the house. The Buffalo coach froze to death. For confirmation, check him out when CBS cameras scan the bench area of the Bills.

The TV Repairman: Stephen Lang brings pretty decent credentials to the made-for-TV movie "Babe Ruth" Sunday (9 p.m.) on NBC. Of course, playing Henry V, Hamlet and Willie Loman could be considered child's play next to attempting to capture the essence of the Bambino. Pete Rose has a cameo as Ty Cobb; meanwhile, it's mind-boggling to ponder Bruce Weitz (Belker on "Hill Street Blues") as Miller Huggins.* The American League playoffs commence Tuesday with Toronto and Minnesota kicking off the "Battle of the Carpets" at 8:30 p.m. . . . CBS is losing so much on its baseball package itisn't bothering to have a pre-game show, for which it is to be commended.

THERE IS ALREADY the predictable grousing about a Pentagon-approved video that is going to be made about the Gulf war.Those who are complaining don't like the idea that the project is being done by NFL Films, the company that produces the enormously popular highlight films and other TV specials for the National Football League.The critics say that having the NFL-owned company make the film sends a dangerous message that war is just a game -- our team, the good guys, against their team, the bad guys.

Gathering sports media notes two-by-two and measuring them in cubits while waiting for the next downpour: It's a big weekend for ESPN/ABC, with the NBA Finals having begun last night and the Belmont Stakes run tomorrow. The playoffs have scored well for the corporate brother networks. Overall, ESPN's playoff audience was up 38 percent over last year for an average 3.3 percent of the available audience, and ABC's playoff games increased 28 percent to a 3.7 rating. The five Eastern Conference finals games on ESPN were up 47 percent (4.7 rating)

In the lobby of NFL Films in South Jersey are the rows and rows of more than 90 Emmy Awards that stand as testament to the artistry of the filmmakers who work there. And there's a banner that says "Keepers of the Flame," a name given to them by George Halas. The lights were turned off on 21 of the flame-keepers recently, laid off at the direction of the NFL. In this hemorrhaging economy, a handful of jobs from a company that employed about 295 folks represents only a small calamity, I realize, but one that saddens me personally for a couple of reasons.

Tapping away at sports media notes while wondering whether I can get any stock tips from the toddler in the Super Bowl E-Trade commercials: As he congratulated Gary Williams on his 600th victory Wednesday night, Maryland basketball radio analyst Chris Knoche briefly mentioned having been part of Williams' first victory. Knoche played for Williams in his first college head coaching job, at American, where Knoche also ended up coaching. This is repeat praise in this space, but Knoche does a terrific job on Terps broadcasts - dispassionate about how the team is playing, yet passionate about wanting them to win. We didn't get to hear Dick Vitale's first game back from vocal cord surgery for ESPN on Wednesday because of Atlantic Coast Conference network blackout rules, but Baltimore-area viewers can catch him tomorrow at 9 p.m. on ESPN's Georgetown-Louisville game.

While recalling what comedian Fred Allen (look him up in your history books) once said about television - it's called a medium because nothing on it is ever well-done - here are this week's sports media notes: This is one of the reasons you have paid for the NFL Network. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., the channel presents Ravens at 49ers: NFL Mic'd Up. NFL Films put microphones on 10 players and coaches in Sunday's game and used 12 additional cameras to produce a one-hour special with a truly inside look at the game.

As part of the NFL Films series on Super Bowl champion teams, the NFL Network aired a profile of the 2000 Ravens on Thursday. My viewing of a preview DVD made me think this: Sure, the NFL can seem to get away with things image-wise that other leagues don't, but here is an example how the NFL so often does things right. You might think that an arm of the league - which NFL Films is - would have to soft-pedal or even ignore the Ray Lewis/Atlanta murders angle of the Ravens' Super Bowl season.

The NFL Network is running a series of programs, produced by NFL Films, on Super Bowl champion teams, called America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions. With NFL Films involved, it comes as no surprise how high the quality is. Each of the 20 shows - telecast in reverse order of the 20 best as chosen by a panel assembled by the NFL Network - is driven by extensive recollections by three members of the team. For example, the piece on the 1992 Dallas Cowboys features Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Ken Norton Jr. (Most of the Champions episodes air Friday nights at 8 or 8:30.

DETROIT -- Against a backdrop of impending labor strife, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue yesterday called the Super Bowl an "unofficial midwinter national holiday." Better he should call it the calm before the storm. One day after Gene Upshaw, executive director for the NFL Players Association, said the two sides are farther apart than when negotiations began on an extension of the collective bargaining agreement, Tagliabue acknowledged those positions are becoming entrenched. "I don't think negotiations are going very well," Tagliabue said in his state-of-the-league address.

Football, as best-selling sports author John Feinstein notes in his recent book on the Ravens, is America's preeminent game. Its television ratings, advertising riches and weekly attendance tell us so. And yet, football and top-notch writing have rarely gone hand-in-hand. The sports canon, most of it produced since 1960, is rife with baseball. But relatively few football books stand out (Sports Illustrated included 10, compared to 26 for baseball, in a ranking of the 100 greatest sports books)

WHEN JOHN SAUNDERS saw the scene at the Palace at Auburn Hills last Friday, he had a visceral reaction. Quite visceral, in fact. Saunders, host of ESPN's NBA studio show, saw players and fans battling in the stands and on the floor. But he also saw red. He laid the blame on the paying customers, saying the fans involved in the melee were "a bunch of punks." In the days that followed, Saunders would soften his stance, saying the Indiana Pacers who went after the crowd also were in the wrong, but in a phone interview Tuesday, he explained his initial harsh response had much to do with his own unfortunate brush with an ugly crowd 27 years ago. In 1977, Saunders was a college hockey player for Ryerson University in Toronto.

The newly renovated AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring is holding its first documentary film festival Wednesday through June 22. The Silverdocs Festival will feature more than 70 documentary films, including 21 foreign, on topics ranging from architecture to the Sudan to women's tennis. The festival will open with the North American premiere of Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin, by Time magazine film critic and filmmaker Richard Schickel. "The opening-night film was one of those serendipitous things," says Nina Gilden Seavey, director of the Silverdocs Festival.