Thursday is set to mark a historic occasion as the NFL’s historic 100th season gets under way with the 2019 NFL Kickoff. NFL Media has been building up to the occasion with a slate of programming announcements surrounding its lineup of program series and specials that celebrate the “memories, moments and people that have made the NFL an iconic brand for 100 seasons.” In July, the league announced that NFL 100 Greatest and NFL 100 All-Time Team would be serving the anchor series for the full lineup of NFL 100 programming, with additional series NFL 100 Roundtables and NFL 100 Sessions also showcased across the network this fall.
NFL 100 Greatest debuts Sept. 13 at 8p, rolling out over 10 weeks with two one-hour episodes airing back-to-back every Friday night. NFL Films conducted more than 400 interviews with celebrities, current NFL stars and Legends that will air across 20, one-hour episodes with four episodes dedicated to each topic. NFL 100 Roundtables debuts Sept. 27 at 10p as a special eight-part series that connects some of the greatest to play the game by position. In NFL 100 Sessions, current NFL stars invite the players they’ve looked up to for an one-on-one film session and will air as within the NFL GameDay Kickoff pregame show leading into Thursday Night Football. Cynopsis asked executives from the platform – Keith Cossrow, NFL Films Vice President, Senior Coordinating Producer and Ronit Larone, NFL Network Vice President – about planning for the anniversary, developing content and what fans can expect.
Cossrow on developing content for 100 years of the NFL: NFL Films has been capturing and preserving the history of the NFL since 1962, so in a sense the planning for this occasion started sometime before the first Super Bowl. Seriously, when you work in a facility built around a vault containing hundreds of millions of feet of film, this is the kind of event you exist for. We had our first meeting with Pete Abitante, the NFL executive in charge of NFL 100, about two and a half years ago. Right away we knew we wouldn’t be able to accomplish everything we wanted to do with a single documentary or series. So we took the approach of developing multiple projects from the outset and we are pleased with the results of that process.
On programming: We didn’t want this to be an exercise in self-congratulation or chest-thumping. We want NFL 100 to be a celebration inclusive of everyone who loves the game, grounded with gratitude to our players, coaches, clubs and fans – all the people who have made the NFL what it is. We also wanted it to be FUN. That word fun has been our north star throughout the process. Everything we do, every show we create: let’s have some fun.
At the beginning we joked about creating 100 hours of content for the 100th season – on top of what we already do at NFL Films and NFL Media in LA. But you know what? We came closer than we probably thought possible. The rollout of all these projects has already begun. Peyton’s Places, Peyton Manning’s unique journey through NFL history, launched on ESPN+ in August and will continue with an episode a week through the Super Bowl. And again, if there is one word to describe that series, I think most folks would agree it is a ton of fun. Peyton has been an absolutely tremendous partner involved with every detail of the show. His wit, personality and love of the game are present in every frame. So we may not have gotten to 100 hours of content but we did wind up creating 10 original projects for the 100th led by Peyton’s Places.
On NFL 100 Greatest: NFL 100 Greatest was supposed to be a 10-hour series. One episode a week for ten weeks. After we started doing interviews and editing the moments we said there’s no way we can do this in 10 hours. Let’s make it 20. So we’ve been shooting these interviews for almost a year and a half now, there are over 400 interviews in the can, and 20 hours feels like it’s not enough. The best thing about the interviews is that they show we’re all the same in the end. Whether you are a Hall or Famer, a current coach or player, a movie star, a musician, a pro athlete in another sport – or none of the above – we all have a favorite player, a game we’ll never forget, a moment that made us fans forever.
Larone on NFL 100 Sessions: Two that really jump out are JJ Watt and Brett Favre, and Antonio Brown and Jerry Rice. Growing up in Wisconsin, there was nobody bigger than Brett Favre for JJ Watt. Sitting with his childhood hero proves to be a can’t miss experience for the 100th Anniversary of the NFL. The excitement from JJ is immediately evident from the ear-to-ear smile on his face as he meets Favre. In a world where athletes seem larger than life, it’s easy to forget that they grow up with their own dreams and idols. JJ displays just that while sitting with Favre, his “Wisconsin Hero.”
For Antonio Brown, being able to pick the brain of the greatest wide receiver to ever play proved to be a humbling experience. You feel the admiration from Brown coming off the screen as he continuously asks questions to help improve his game and how to extend his career. Jerry Rice has Brown’s career on his radar, calling him a “G.O.A.T” and reciting Brown’s stats back to him. The mutual respect for each other shows throughout. Connecting generations and stars of this magnitude is the perfect way to celebrate 100 years of the NFL.
