NFL Films: The Music, Power and Glory of Sam Spence

When I was younger, playing football was more than a game - it was a test of budding manhood - an endurance ritual of how much you could take, how much you could give. I hated watching games in domed stadiums with the perfect green of Astroturf. Although a turf burn could be a painful test of endurance, nothing compared to playing football in the snow, the driving rain. Mud-stained uniforms and bits of grass stuck in your helmet. The elements added more to the test. You were battling not only your opponents, but nature itself. Through it all there was a soundtrack that played in my head - that NFL Films music, the music of Sam Spence and others who turned an ordinary football game into an epic battle of wills. NFL films music transformed the game of football into operatic entertainment and contributed greatly to the success, not only of NFL Films, but to the NFL itself. The man responsible for most of NFL Films music was Sam Spence.

To understand the impact of Sam Spence's music requires a look at NFL Films itself.

Origins of NFL Films

Founded by Ed Sabol, NFL Films began as Blair Motion Pictures, named aftor Sabol's daughter, Blair. Sabol sold coats for a living, but frequently he used his movie camera to record his son Steven playing high school football. Sabol got the idea to start a movie company turning out football films. In 1964, football commissioner Pete Rozelle agreed to buy out Sabol's Blair Motion Pictures, and renamed it NFL Films. Sabol received $12,000 in seed money from NFL owners and was commissioned to produce a highlight film for each NFL team.

Today, NFL Films generates $50 million in annual revenues. One of the reasons for its success is the music of Sam Spence.

The Man Behind the Music

Realizing that powerful music would contribute greatly to the impact of NFL Film's documentary footage, the company commissioned Sam Spence to create a powerful soundtrack to accompany the highlights.

Spence, a former USC music instructor, was hired in 1966 to score the NFL Films documentaries. Spence responded by creating music that would illustrate power and glory. Never subtle and often borrowing cues from contemporary movie soundtracks, Spence's bombastic music, combined with the rich baritone of John Facenda's narration, made each NFL Films documentary a myth-making experience.

Sam Spence spent much of his time working out of Munich, Germany, writing soundtracks for German television programs. After his retirement in 1990, Spence returned to Germany, but he's been active ever since, enjoying new-found fame with the 1998 release of The Power and the Glory: The Original Music & Voices of NFL Films - a compilation of his NFL Films music, as well as the 2004 release of Autumn Thunder, a multi-disk compilation of NFL Films music.

Today you can hear Sam Spence's music from commercials to cartoons such as Spongebob and The Simpsons. Spence's music can be heard in video games, sitcoms, even The Tonight Show - a fitting-tribute to the power and glory of Sam Spence and the music of NFL Films.