NFL Network Gets it Right: America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions

In any sports genre there are lists. Top 50 running backs of all time, greatest clutch hitter of all time, top 10 greatest hockey scorers of all time, etc. The best part about lists is how many arguments they start because everyone has their own opinions on where people should be on that list. So when NFL Films decided to count down the top 20 Super Bowl teams of all-time, you knew there was going to be debate. People were going to say that their favorite team should've been higher or at least on the list. They were also going to say how some teams were ranked way to high, mostly because of bias and not quality. I was no different. When I saw the final list, I thought that my favorite team should have been a lot higher and one of their Super Bowl wins wasn't even in the top 20. I couldn't believe it. However, what NFL Films did beyond their rankings was nothing short of amazing. The series that they created and have shown over the course of the past year on the NFL Network were quite possibly the greatest shows I have ever seen.

How good is this program? To sum it up, even teams that I hated, I couldn't turn my eyes away from. The style of their story telling, the music, the personal stories from the athletes and the narrators made this must see TV. If you have not had the chance to watch any of these shows because you either don't have the NFL Network or just not that big of a football fan you are missing out. The quality of the shows trumps any feelings that you may have towards a certain team or even football itself.

To begin with, let's look at the narrators of the films. NFL films decided to move away from their long-time voice of Steve Sabol, who ran NFL Films for many years, and went with an array of Hollywood talent. NFL Films recruited Alec Baldwin, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Martin Sheen and Bruce Willis to do the narration on the different teams. This quality of talent makes the films engrossing from beginning to end. While I love Alec Baldwin, I feel that Martin Sheen just has the perfect voice for it. This may be because when I hear him, I think of him as the President on the TV series 'The West Wing.' However, each actor brings their own style, and it is a nice change of pace to have different actors for the different teams.

However, what makes the series great are the interviews with the former players and coaches of those teams. The creators of the program did a great job of not only picking the major stars on a team, but some of the not so famous players that have an interesting perspective to their team's success. Also, there are no repeats. Joe Montana is only on one of the 49ers episodes instead of on the all four that he could have been on. This allows the viewer to see a variety of perspectives from each year.

While each team is picked because they won the Super Bowl, the series does not focus on just the Super Bowl game, but the games and events that surrounded the team leading up to the season that they won the Super Bowl. They cover the highs and lows of the season and everything else in-between. It is this in-depth covering of the team that makes you connect with the players from that season. It gives the viewer a perspective of the game and that team that is never seen from just watching the games, and it truly is worth it.

After the NFL Network ran their first series covering the top 20 all-time Super Bowl champions, they did release the videos of the other 20 teams that were not ranked. This allows the viewer to watch each team if they were not considered part of the top 20. It is especially nice if your favorite team wasn't considered to be a part of the top 20, or if you are like me, and just enjoy watching the series. It appears that they are not finished either, since they are now beginning to show the Indianapolis Colts season, which culminated in winning Super Bowl XLI. Overall, I would recommend this show to anyone who likes sports or is just into good story telling. I say this as a Broncos fan, who actually enjoyed the series that showed the Broncos getting annihilated by the Redskins and 49ers in their respective Super Bowls.