NFL Dream Season was a three way partnership between ESPN and NFL Movies and was the preliminary incarnation of Fantasy Soccer.
They poured by way of previous NFL Movies footage and mixed bodily movie with creativeness and created matchups that by no means occurred to reply the query, “What group is the best in NFL historical past?”
The Premise
The 12 months was 1988. The web didn’t exist. Neither did different upcoming superior stuff like DVD gamers or Pamela Anderson.
The argument about greatest NFL group ever will not be a brand new one. However the best way NFL Movies tried to resolve it was as novel because it was daring.
The employees at NFL Movies took an inside ballot and selected the 20 greatest groups in NFL historical past.
They took these outcomes and ran them by way of a pc recreation referred to as NFL Problem, an MS-DOS laptop program (watch it right here, you may nonetheless play at this time).
ESPN used the pc simulation outcomes to play every fictional recreation utilizing NFL Movies footage to make it seem that one was watching an precise recreation.
NFL Movies added subjective assessments from energetic and retired coaches to assist gauge intangibles and add them to the equation.
From there, they created 4 divisions of 5 groups every.
The Gameplay
With the 20 best NFL groups chosen, they began the “Dream Season.”
Every group performed a daily season schedule of six video games. The 4 division winners superior to a 4 group “dream” playoffs. The ultimate two groups performed one another within the “Dream Bowl” to find out the best NFL group of all-time.
Now that the format and groups had been determined, the best way to go about creating hour-long episodes of every recreation? By making every episode a mini-game of itself.
Each recreation throughout NFL Dream Season had a play by play crew of two Professional Soccer Corridor of Famers; Merrill Reese, the voice of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1977. And Steve Sabol, the face, president, and co-founder (together with his dad Ed) of NFL Movies.
To create dream matchups between groups that didn’t play on the identical time (therefore no footage) the group at NFL Movies painstakingly edited and minimize scenes from previous video games and mixed them.
“It simply took an entire lot of endurance, like doing the largest jigsaw puzzle on the planet,” mentioned Sabol, who mentioned it took as much as 10 weeks to create only one recreation.
Every recreation additionally featured a pregame present hosted by Reese and Sabol from inside a set that regarded like an NFL broadcast sales space – full with actors as different media members to create ambiance and a way of realism.
The halftime present was hosted by Chris Berman who confirmed highlights of different “dream” video games in progress.
And naturally a post-game recap with aforementioned duo of Reese and Sabol. And “Boomer” hosted the postgame present and recapped that week’s outcomes and stats. It was superior!
As a result of linear time wasn’t a factor, it result in some actually cool anomalies.
- Weeb Eubank teaching towards himself in a battle of ’59 Colts vs. ’68 Jets
- Norm Van Brocklin quarterbacking two groups on the identical time (Eagles and Rams)
- Paul Warfield taking part in broad receiver for 2 groups in the identical recreation (Browns vs. Dolphins)
- Chuck Noll teaching the Steelers whereas blocking for the Browns in the identical recreation
Every “recreation” consisted of roughly 40 performs. Some recreation match-ups had been decreased to highlights shared through Berman throughout halftime/submit recreation just because they may not discover sufficient appropriate footage.
The Outcomes
The collection ran a complete of six weeks and featured six full video games.
Week by week, the matchups had been: (1) 1985 Bears vs. 1977 Cowboys; (2) 1984 49ers vs. 1966 Packers; (3) 1976 Raiders vs. 1969 Chiefs; (4) 1986 Giants vs. 1982 Redskins; (5) 1972 Dolphins vs. 1968 Jets; (6) 1986 Bears vs. 1976 Raiders.
Listed below are the ultimate common season standings and outcomes from the playoffs and Dream Bowl:
East
1978 Steelers 6-0
1986 Giants 4-2
1959 Colts 3-3
1960 Eagles 2-4
1968 Jets 1-5
West
1984 49ers 5-1
1977 Cowboys 3-3
1983 Raiders 2-4
1963 Chargers 1-5
1951 Rams 1-5
North
1976 Raiders 6-0
1985 Bears 5-1
1966 Packers 4-2
1953 Lions 2-4
1964 Browns 1-5
South
1972 Dolphins 6-0
1982 Redskins 3-3
1955 Browns 3-3
1969 Chiefs 2-4
1971 Cowboys 0-6
Semis
1978 Steelers over 84 49ers (21-20)
1972 Dolphins over 76 Raiders (24-21)
Dream Bowl
1978 Steelers over 1972 Dolphins (21-20)
Conclusion
NFL Dream Season is reflective of a time when NFL Movies and ESPN had been each at their peak of their powers. Some folks would lump the NFL into that assertion as properly.
Watching the collection is a variety of enjoyable and even 30+ years later it’s unbelievable to think about the quantity of labor and man hours put into the manufacturing.
Watch it on YouTube through Dave Volsky’s channel:
