NFL goes Hollywood: Inside its plan to conquer streaming and movies

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For years, the NFL has playfully scoffed at conspiracy theories its drama is scripted.

Now, the league has hired some of the best writers in the entertainment industry to do just that.

The NFL is venturing into the entertainment world, aiming to reach new fans through movies and its first-ever scripted TV series. They’re going beyond simply using team names and logos, and are now actively creating stories about the league. This includes a planned movie about John Madden, a Christmas Day film featuring an underdog story with the New York Giants, and a Hulu drama called “The Land,” which focuses on fictional characters connected to the Cleveland Browns and stars Christopher Meloni, Mandy Moore, and William H. Macy.

This new studio is the latest collaboration between the NFL and Skydance Sports. It’s designed to produce compelling stories that will appeal to both dedicated football fans and those who don’t usually watch the game.

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After 19 seasons coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin is expected to join NBC’s ‘Football Night in America’ this fall as a studio analyst.

The NFL often claims to be the most compelling reality show on television, and viewership numbers back that up. Last year, NFL games accounted for 84 of the 100 most-watched TV programs, according to Sportico. The year before that, they filled an even larger portion of the top 100, with 93 games making the list.

Jason Reed, head of Skydance Sports, explained that with such a large audience like the NFL’s, it’s important to appeal to a wide range of people. Films about football teams are great for dedicated fans and their communities, but they also attract viewers who might not normally watch a game.

It’s difficult to create a truly honest portrayal of the NFL. The league is unlikely to approve stories that show it in a negative light, but the writers want to be as realistic as possible. A key question is how they’ll tackle sensitive topics like concussions, drug use, and domestic violence. JW Johnson from the Haslam Sports Group, who helps guide the Browns’ business decisions, discussed this during a presentation at last month’s NFL owners meeting.

Look, I’m a huge football fan, and we’re really aiming to avoid a repeat of what happened with the old ESPN show, ‘Playmakers’. It was great, but it got canceled quickly, reportedly because the NFL wasn’t thrilled with how realistically it portrayed things. We want something that fans will absolutely love, but also feels genuinely authentic to the experience of being in a locker room and watching the game. We’ve found a good balance, and we’re confident in what we’ve created.

Dan Fogelman, the creator of the popular show “This is Us” and a dedicated football enthusiast, always wanted to create a dramatic TV series centered around the sport. This vision became “The Land,” which started filming last autumn, though a release date hasn’t been announced yet.

According to creator Dan Fogelman, known for the series ‘Paradise,’ the show isn’t based on fabrication. While the characters are imperfect and make mistakes, the NFL has been supportive. Fogelman initially worried about potential issues, but it hasn’t become a problem because the show doesn’t aim for sensationalism or exaggerated drama. Instead, they focus on realistically portraying situations that actually occur within the league, but with a cinematic quality.

To ensure the show felt authentic, he hired real NFL players as advisors to review the plot and verify the accuracy of the details.

We were visited by several NFL players at our office, which is located on the second floor. It was amazing to meet some of my idols, and I honestly worried the floor might collapse with so many people in one space.

As a huge NFL fan, I’ve always been amazed by NFL Films. For over sixty years, they’ve managed to take the raw power of football and turn it into something beautiful. They really focus on the details – like a perfect spiral from a quarterback like Matthew Stafford – and what’s incredible is they capture it all live, with no retakes! I just learned that the camera operators who get those amazing shots are actually key players in making both the new movies and the streaming shows – that’s pretty cool.

According to Reed, the core idea is to help talented filmmakers utilize the extensive resources and experience NFL Films has built up over six decades. He believes that combining these two elements – great filmmakers and NFL Films’ expertise – is the key to their success.

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Beyond that, the work Ed and Steve Sabol did with NFL Films has left a remarkable collection of footage for filmmakers to use in the years to come.

NFL Films has a limitless amount of content to explore, according to Jessica Boddy, their VP of commercial operations and business affairs. ‘We’ve barely begun to tap into its potential,’ she said.

For Fogelman, “The Land” is scratching a creative itch he’s felt since childhood.

He shared that he’d dreamed of doing this show for two decades. As someone who didn’t succeed as an athlete, he connected with the project through his own childhood experiences with his father. Growing up in Pittsburgh as a Steelers fan and later in New Jersey as a Giants fan, he bonded with his hardworking father by quietly watching games with him and playing catch.

My father is now 83, and even after all these years, we stay connected by talking every Monday after watching the Giants game together. Now, he chats with both me and my son. Football has always been a huge part of my life, shaping my friendships and something I’ve always cherished.

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2026-04-27 14:31