The NFL is missing the boat

by mikebdot on Jul 19, 2007 2:49 PM CDT

Surely you all have seen the first 30 Super Bowls for sale on DVD. When I saw these I got so excited in anticipation for the next logical step: complete seasons on DVD.

When I was younger, I would see the commercials for SI where you get the free highlight package of your favorite team and wish I was able to take advantage of the "over 52% off the cover price" deal. Well, screw a highlight package, I think the NFL is missing the boat on selling complete seasons for NFL teams.

Apparently there are some people who bootleg together DVDs of the entire 1985 Chicago Bears season. I don't want a bootleg copy of each game with different/crappy audio quality, etc. What I want is a well-produced, Steve Sabol narrated (optional without) Chicago Bears 1985 season on DVD. I would pay over $100 for this, maybe $150.

It would also be nice if they had 22 cameras on the field, one dedicated to each player, so, eventually you could purchase "Every yard from scrimmage by [insert star player here]". I feel cheated I can not already do this with Walter's career. I would pay over $200 for that package.

Wouldn't it be nice to actually watch each player independently throughout a season so you could actually gauge their performance? Every single route? Every single dropped pass? Every single hit where they hold onto the ball? Sure, this might help the other teams a bit, but it would help ours, too...

Would anyone else spend big bucks for all of Walter's yards from scrimmage? I'm sick of highlights. I want the whole story.

Poll

What career package would you most like to see?

Walter Payton

7 votes

Mike Singletary

2 votes

Richard Dent

0 votes

Tom Waddle

2 votes

Brian Urlacher (eventually)

0 votes

Devin Hester (eventually)

1 votes

12 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Singletary is my all time favorite Bear

so I would vote for him, but is Hester can put up even half the amount of moments he had last year for his career that would be a must have.

by Adam T on Jul 19, 2007 2:58 PM CDT reply actions

I'm with you.

Every single game of every single sport should be available for purchase. I don't know why the don't do it. It seems like a no brainer to me.

by Chad @ Windy City Gridiron on Jul 19, 2007 4:53 PM CDT reply actions

I like the full game option

but there is no way anyone would have 22 cameras on individual players at all times. There are so many logistical issues with that.

by RME JICO on Jul 19, 2007 7:58 PM CDT reply actions

I'd pay to see every game for sure ...

be cool to see the first game I ever went to, in the '80 season, or the 3 games I went to in '85, etc.

I wonder if it's even possible, though? Do they still have the originals from the 70s or even 80s? I know NFL films collates highlights and stuff, probably from every year since NFL games were broadcast, and you see a 'classic' every once in a while on NFL network in its entirety, but those latter ones are usually playoff or Super Bowl.

Individual players - yeah, but I'd also pay to see a camera on individual fans to watch what mischief they were up to during the game. Take Chad for instance ...

I wouldn't ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something. - Dick Butkus

by iowaBear on Jul 19, 2007 9:04 PM CDT reply actions

You're probably right

Yeah, the video from the late 70s/early 80s would probably not be available to see every carry Payton ever had, which is why I feel cheated.

As for having trouble getting people to man 22 cameras (response to another comment), surely they could find 22 people from Chicago willing to do so 8 times a year (and 22 people from each city with a football team). If I actually lived in Chicago they wouldn't even have to pay me to do this. I would do it for a free ticket to the game. Just give me a list of what position I should be filming on a given formation and I would do so easily. The five lineman should be easy. The only tricky ones would be wideouts/tight ends and any crazy formations on offense. Then on defense there might be some problems with blitz heavy or 3-4 teams that move around a lot. But, they could come up with some way to just display or say the number you're supposed to be filming each play and then it'd be a no brainer. Logistically it can't be any more of than coordinating the umpteen million cameras they have on the field already.

by mikebdot on Jul 20, 2007 11:14 AM CDT up reply actions

You'r right

It's not that hard and wouldn't cost too much money. These days cameras are cheap and so it tape, but I don't think there would be a huge market for "2006 Ruben Brown - Every Play Hero"

by Chad @ Windy City Gridiron on Jul 20, 2007 12:28 PM CDT up reply actions

HD

Come to think of it, they could have 1 camera with super HD capacity and work from that digital film to seperate it all out. Shoot, I would be interested in film of any O-lineman in the league. It could be a part of a package "The trenches". Receivers could be "the flash". DBs and LBs could be "Downfield containment". D-line "The punishers". Or some such nonsense. I'd gladly pay $100 for all four if they were $25 a pop. Especially if I didn't get to watch a number of the games from the season for whatever reason.

by mikebdot on Jul 23, 2007 8:29 AM CDT up reply actions

Super Bowl 20 season

I would love to be able to see more footage from that season. I would gladly buy a box set that had games from that season. Something tells me that if they did that it would only be the playoffs. to have the whole season (16 regular season + 3 playoffs = 19 games) in a box set is probably too ambitious of a project.

first the Rush...now the Bears.

by mike @ Windy City Gridiron on Jul 23, 2007 12:53 PM CDT reply actions

Time saved

The beauty of football is that on regular season games that weren't particularly interesting, they would only need to include actual plays, not the whole 60 minutes of clock movement, i.e., 120+ plays should only take about 12-15 minutes to view if edited appropriately. So, potentially, you could put 10 or so games on one DVD.

Plus, I do not have any interest in seeing the announcers, or hearing them for that matter, especially advertisements for programs that are going to be on after the game.

by mikebdot on Jul 23, 2007 2:06 PM CDT up reply actions

The problem with all this

is that the cost of shooting, editing, producing, marketing and distributing them isn't nearly worth the effort. There's just not that many people that would buy them.

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by thecubreporter on Jul 23, 2007 8:13 PM CDT reply actions