From the start, Steve Sabol established a house style that would sell the game and the league, albeit by using the filmmaker's art to bend the game's story. Football is essentially a game of coaching and planning, with squads trying to either complete or stop fully choreographed five-second plays. But Steve Sabol's guys presented instead a game of individual heroics. We portray the game as a passion. I wanted to show the muscles bulging, the snot spraying, the sweat flying.
Football is a very visceral sport.
But at the time we were just a bunch of young guys who loved to make movies and loved pro football and wanted to communicate that love to an audience. The ball is snapped and the play continues. A drama of man on man and a race against the clock. It's precision, persistance, power. The unleashed speed of the kickoff.