It\u2019s the next step in the partnership between the NFL and Skydance Sports<\/a>, the forming of a premier content studio aimed at creating must-watch storytelling and attracting everyone from hardcore football fans to people who otherwise have no real interest in the game.<\/p>\n The NFL has long contended it\u2019s the world\u2019s greatest reality show and the numbers support that. According to Sportico<\/a>, NFL games were 84 of the top 100 most-watched television shows last year. And the year before, it was 93 of 100.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have an audience as big as the NFL\u2019s, there are a lot of different demographics to service and engage even more deeply,\u201d said Jason Reed, who heads Skydance Sports. \u201cThose movies work as a fan service. They service towns, fans of those franchises, and they really connect. What they also do is pick up this other group of people who maybe wouldn\u2019t watch a football game.\u201d<\/p>\n Pulling back the curtain on the league is a challenge. The NFL isn\u2019t likely to sanction unflattering content, at least not much of it, yet the goal is to make the stories as realistic as possible. How will the writers handle issues such as concussions, drug use or domestic violence? That was addressed in a presentation at last month\u2019s owners meetings by JW Johnson of the Haslam Sports Group, who oversees the business strategy of the Browns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want this to be \u2014 no offense to our friends at ESPN \u2014 a \u2018Playmakers<\/a>\u2019 situation,\u201d said Johnson, referring to the popular but short-lived series on the Cougars, a fictional football team, that explored mature themes and was canceled after one season after pressure from the NFL. \u201cWe want this to be a really fan-friendly show that also has the authenticity of what happens in a locker room and on the field. We\u2019re very comfortable with it.\u201d<\/p>\n David Corenswet as \u201cJohn Tuggle\u201d and Isabel May as as \u201cKatie\u201d in Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story,\u201d from Paramount Pictures.<\/p>\n (Sarah Enticknap \/ Paramount Pictures)<\/p>\n Dan Fogelman, creator of \u201cThis is Us,\u201d and a lifelong football fan, had long envisioned writing a dramatic series based on his favorite sport. That led to \u201cThe Land,\u201d which began production last fall and does not have an official premiere date.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not making this stuff up out of thin air,\u201d said Fogelman, who also created the Hulu series \u201cParadise,\u201d a post-apocalyptic political thriller. \u201cThe characters are flawed and they do bad things, but the NFL has been great about that. I was worried up top, and it just hasn\u2019t been an issue because we\u2019re not out there looking to be salacious. We\u2019re not trying to do ripped-from-the-headlines, crazy, exaggerated versions of reality. We want things that really happen, done accurately and in a cinematic way.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, he brought in actual NFL players as consultants to help with the storylines and make sure the details make sense.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a bunch of NFL players come and visit us in our little office, and we\u2019re on the second floor,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of my heroes were in that room. I was genuinely concerned the floor was going to fall through.\u201d<\/p>\n Enter NFL Films<\/a>, which for more than six decades has turned a violent sport into an art form, filling the frame with meticulous focus on a Matthew Stafford<\/a> spiral \u2014 and without the benefit of a second take. Those camera operators are heavily involved in the production of both the upcoming movies and the streaming series.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s our whole thing,\u201d Reed said. \u201cHow do we support great filmmakers and make sure they know how to access the resources and expertise that NFL Films has developed over 60 years, and combine those two together? That, to me, is the secret sauce of the venture.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, what the father-and-son combination of Ed and Steve Sabol created in NFL Films provides an incredible library for future projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe well is infinite,\u201d said Jessica Boddy, vice president of commercial operations and business affairs for NFL Films. \u201cWe\u2019ve only scratched the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n For Fogelman, \u201cThe Land\u201d is scratching a creative itch he\u2019s felt since childhood.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to do this show for 20 years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a failed athlete myself. My connection with my father growing up \u2014 he worked a lot \u2014 was I grew up in Pittsburgh as a Steelers fan and also migrated to New Jersey, where we became Giants fans. My dad would let me watch games with him if I was quiet and didn\u2019t act goofy. We would also throw the football back and forth.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, many decades later, my father is 83, and our connection is that we talk every Monday after Giants games. He now talks with my son and me. For me, football has been very much in the fabric of my life and my relationship with my friends. This has been something I\u2019ve been chasing for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the NFL has playfully scoffed at conspiracy theories its drama is scripted. Now, the league has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[123343,6456,123341,123340,2730,423,1743,123342,48,52,51,1510,10572,47,50,49,4287,752,123339,14976,72],"class_list":["post-288101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-actual-nfl-player","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-dan-fogelman","tag-dramatic-hulu-series","tag-football-game","tag-game","tag-hollywood","tag-jw-johnson","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-land","tag-league","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-movie","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-films","tag-streaming","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777296610_982_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n