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McVay stated around the time that he was hired that he would be calling the offensive plays.
"All or Nothing" featuring the LA Rams (June 30th)
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Zodi
Hall of Fame
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I don't remember seeing Fisher get after Williams for the defense; there wasnt any "we need to blitz, play man, heavy zone" etc., unless I missed it.
And a better comparison for McVay will be how he lets Wade handle the defense.
WestCoastRam
Legend
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That 49ers game was a debacle at the beginning of the season. Looks like a complete failure across the entirety of the offense.
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- Peter
Florio whines incessantly about not enough information being given out, and then contradicts himself by saying, "we got a lot more of the story than we ever do when a head coach is fired."
Behind the scenes deliberations by the owner and his front office staff should be kept private. The egotism and hunger for ratings and clicks by media types is getting out of hand. SMH
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...hields-much-of-jeff-fishers-firing-from-view/
All or Nothing shields much of Jeff Fisher’s firing from view
Posted by Mike Florio on July 2, 2017
Getty Images
The second season of Amazon’s All or Nothing includes the inherently compelling aftermath of the firing of a head coach, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Yes, the video and audio from Rams coach Jeff Fisher’s last meeting with his staff and from his last meeting with his players is fascinating, and the aftermath in the meeting room after Fisher left is arguably even better. But the best stuff was left on the cutting room floor, if it was even captured.
The show includes nothing about the deliberations among upper management regarding the decision to fire Fisher, or about the procedure that resulted in the termination. With cameras and microphones everywhere, All or Nothing ended up giving the audience nothing regarding the decision-making process.
Making that omission more glaring is the fact that the episode after Fisher’s firing includes a whispered heart-to-heart between interim coach John Fassel and executive V.P. of football operations Kevin Demoff regarding Fassel’s appointment to run the team in Fisher’s absence. During the meeting, Demoff mentions that he has talked to owner Stan Kroenke about their shared faith in Fassel.
That’s fine. So why isn’t the meeting between Kroenke and Demoff included in the show?
More importantly, why isn’t the termination meeting between Kroenke and/or Demoff and Fisher in the show? Over the years, countless players have learned their fate during Hard Knocks while on camera, from Chad Johnson being cut by the Dolphins after an arrest to Vontae Davis being so stunned by the news of a trade that he asked to call his grandmother to every other form and fashion of involuntary separation of NFL players from NFL teams.
If it’s fair game for players, it should be fair game for coaches. And it’s unfair that the NFL, through its in-house production company, is willing to broadcast sensitive moments involving players but unwilling to do the same involving coaches and General Managers.
Speaking of General Managers, Rams G.M. Les Snead is conspicuously absent throughout the process of Fisher’s firing, with Snead’s face never shown, his voice never heard, his name never mentioned.
Was Snead consulted? Did he approve? Did he object? Did they consider firing him, too?
So while we got a lot more of the story than we ever do when a head coach is fired, All or Nothing falls short of the same kind of “all” that we get every August, when players are cut with NFL Films taping and, eventually, an HBO audience watching.
*********************************************************************
In this post Florio refers to the Rams as a ship of fools and Fisher as the captain.
Well, Mike Florio is the one who captained the "let's make the Redskins change their name by flooding PFT with daily stories about how mean they are." How did that work out for you, Mike?
Now he's on the "let's force an NFL team to sign Colin Kaepernick or we will daily flood PFT with stories about how unfair they are" bandwagon. That will work out the same way. So who's the fool?
As the member who posts more PFT stuff each day than anyone else here, I'm not about to boycott PFT because Florio says mean things about the Rams. Just noting the agenda this guy seems to have and how frikkin' annoying it's getting.
***********************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...d-defensive-players-to-crank-it-up-even-more/
After warning from referee, Fisher told defensive players to “crank it up even more”
Posted by Mike Florio on July 2, 2017
Getty Images
Over the years, teams coached by Jeff Fisher have had a reputation for being chippy to the point, at times, of dirty. And Fisher for the most part hasn’t been criticized for his role as the captain of a ship of fools.
One specific scene from All or Nothing could change that perception.
After a post-play scrum during last year’s game in Miami, referee Gene Steratore approaches Fisher and tells him that, between the whistle and the snap, things need to be less intense.
“We’ve got to cut it when it’s cut,” Steratore says, “and then wait 20 seconds and knock somebody’s ass the next play. But not in between, Jeff.”
“OK, I’ll calm it down,” Fisher says. “I’ll calm it down. I’ll calm it down.”
Fisher then gathers the defense together and to communicate the message directly to the players.
“The referee told me to talk to you guys,” Fisher says. Then he pauses, and a look of wide-eyed mischief emerges on his face.
“Crank it up even more.”
The players explode with approval. Fisher then tells them to watch their language, explaining that the referees primarily are listening for profanity and taunts.
There are no further scenes of chippy play, so it’s unclear whether the players did indeed “crank it up even more.” Whatever they did, it didn’t stop the Dolphins from beating the Rams, dropping them to 4-6 for the fourth straight season.
Spoiler alert: Unlike the other three years, the 2017 Rams didn’t win another game.
Behind the scenes deliberations by the owner and his front office staff should be kept private. The egotism and hunger for ratings and clicks by media types is getting out of hand. SMH
*******************************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...hields-much-of-jeff-fishers-firing-from-view/
All or Nothing shields much of Jeff Fisher’s firing from view
Posted by Mike Florio on July 2, 2017
The second season of Amazon’s All or Nothing includes the inherently compelling aftermath of the firing of a head coach, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Yes, the video and audio from Rams coach Jeff Fisher’s last meeting with his staff and from his last meeting with his players is fascinating, and the aftermath in the meeting room after Fisher left is arguably even better. But the best stuff was left on the cutting room floor, if it was even captured.
The show includes nothing about the deliberations among upper management regarding the decision to fire Fisher, or about the procedure that resulted in the termination. With cameras and microphones everywhere, All or Nothing ended up giving the audience nothing regarding the decision-making process.
Making that omission more glaring is the fact that the episode after Fisher’s firing includes a whispered heart-to-heart between interim coach John Fassel and executive V.P. of football operations Kevin Demoff regarding Fassel’s appointment to run the team in Fisher’s absence. During the meeting, Demoff mentions that he has talked to owner Stan Kroenke about their shared faith in Fassel.
That’s fine. So why isn’t the meeting between Kroenke and Demoff included in the show?
More importantly, why isn’t the termination meeting between Kroenke and/or Demoff and Fisher in the show? Over the years, countless players have learned their fate during Hard Knocks while on camera, from Chad Johnson being cut by the Dolphins after an arrest to Vontae Davis being so stunned by the news of a trade that he asked to call his grandmother to every other form and fashion of involuntary separation of NFL players from NFL teams.
If it’s fair game for players, it should be fair game for coaches. And it’s unfair that the NFL, through its in-house production company, is willing to broadcast sensitive moments involving players but unwilling to do the same involving coaches and General Managers.
Speaking of General Managers, Rams G.M. Les Snead is conspicuously absent throughout the process of Fisher’s firing, with Snead’s face never shown, his voice never heard, his name never mentioned.
Was Snead consulted? Did he approve? Did he object? Did they consider firing him, too?
So while we got a lot more of the story than we ever do when a head coach is fired, All or Nothing falls short of the same kind of “all” that we get every August, when players are cut with NFL Films taping and, eventually, an HBO audience watching.
*********************************************************************
In this post Florio refers to the Rams as a ship of fools and Fisher as the captain.
Well, Mike Florio is the one who captained the "let's make the Redskins change their name by flooding PFT with daily stories about how mean they are." How did that work out for you, Mike?
Now he's on the "let's force an NFL team to sign Colin Kaepernick or we will daily flood PFT with stories about how unfair they are" bandwagon. That will work out the same way. So who's the fool?
As the member who posts more PFT stuff each day than anyone else here, I'm not about to boycott PFT because Florio says mean things about the Rams. Just noting the agenda this guy seems to have and how frikkin' annoying it's getting.
***********************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...d-defensive-players-to-crank-it-up-even-more/
After warning from referee, Fisher told defensive players to “crank it up even more”
Posted by Mike Florio on July 2, 2017
Over the years, teams coached by Jeff Fisher have had a reputation for being chippy to the point, at times, of dirty. And Fisher for the most part hasn’t been criticized for his role as the captain of a ship of fools.
One specific scene from All or Nothing could change that perception.
After a post-play scrum during last year’s game in Miami, referee Gene Steratore approaches Fisher and tells him that, between the whistle and the snap, things need to be less intense.
“We’ve got to cut it when it’s cut,” Steratore says, “and then wait 20 seconds and knock somebody’s ass the next play. But not in between, Jeff.”
“OK, I’ll calm it down,” Fisher says. “I’ll calm it down. I’ll calm it down.”
Fisher then gathers the defense together and to communicate the message directly to the players.
“The referee told me to talk to you guys,” Fisher says. Then he pauses, and a look of wide-eyed mischief emerges on his face.
“Crank it up even more.”
The players explode with approval. Fisher then tells them to watch their language, explaining that the referees primarily are listening for profanity and taunts.
There are no further scenes of chippy play, so it’s unclear whether the players did indeed “crank it up even more.” Whatever they did, it didn’t stop the Dolphins from beating the Rams, dropping them to 4-6 for the fourth straight season.
Spoiler alert: Unlike the other three years, the 2017 Rams didn’t win another game.
RamsOfCastamere
I drink things, and know nothing
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- 8,295
I just finished binge watching the whole thing today. It provides a different perspective than Hard Knocks. It focuses more on the coaches and the weekly preparation of the game than the players personal life. It extends past the draft too so there's a bit of McVay for those that are interested. It sucks (the 2016 season) because we had a promising start after the Week 1 shit show, but after losing a bunch of close games that could have changed the outlook of our season, we just crashed hard instead of getting better and finishing games. It's not quite your fairy tale ending but it makes for a dramatic show.
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- Feb 9, 2014
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- Peter
https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2017/...ow-all-or-nothing-showrunner-los-angeles-rams
Interview With Keith Cossrow, All Or Nothing Showrunner
We got to speak with the man behind the show detailing the 2016 Los Angeles Rams
by 3k
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55530451/All_or_Nothing_poster.0.jpg)
All or Nothing Season 2
I had a chance to speak with Keith Cossrow, Coordinating Producer and showrunner for All or Nothing, NFL Films’ show about a year in the life of an NFL Franchise.
Last night, the second season of the show launched on Amazon Prime Video chronicling the Los Angeles Rams 2016 season.
I talked to Cossrow about the show, his role and how the series will move beyond Season 2.
How long have you been with NFL Films? Were you with the show from the conceptual phase prior to Season 1, and how did you come to be a part of this?
Yeah, I’ve been in charge of it from the get go, Season 1. I’ve been the showrunner for both seasons. I’ve been with NFL Films for 20 years since 1997, 20 seasons as we like to say.
So how did the idea of the show, prior to the Rams, how did that develop?
Since Hard Knocks was born, it was viewed as the Holy Grail. “When are you guys gonna do a Hard Knocks on the regular season?”
We always thought it was impossible, because the two things teams talk about most during the regular season are injuries and strategy. You just can’t show that stuff in real-time the way you do Hard Knocks where it’s the preseason with a different set of storylines that can be shared much easier.
So we thought, it’s never going to happen. And even if it does, it’s not going to be very good, because we won’t be able to show anything.
And then this [Arizona] Cardinals thing developed last year, and we started to figure out that maybe we could shoot the whole thing, not tell anybody because we didn’t know how it was gonna turn out, keep it a secret, put the whole thing together and then air the whole thing after the season was over betting that the content would be compelling enough and unique enough and the access would be extraordinary enough that people would be interested in watching it.
We found a partner in Amazon who aligned with that point of view and thought it would fit their audience and what they were looking to do with sports and original programming in the way they like to do on-demand streaming and bingeable content. We had never done a binge show before, so it was really exciting to get into this format with Amazon.
The rest is history.
We did the Cardinals season. It went spectacularly well. Amazon had great results, and it won the Emmy for Serialized Sports Documentary, and we were on to Season 2.
How did that transition work, going from the Cardinals to selecting the Rams? How did that happen?
Well, it’s always a challenge to pick a team whether it’s Hard Knocks or this.
Were you guys under the same constraints as Hard Knocks with the rules like no playoffs, no new head coach?
No, there are no rules for this. It’s so new...
The challenge last year was that nobody had seen the show when we were asking them if they want to do it. We said, “Well, we did this thing with the Cardinals, and it’s coming out soon.” You’re trying to get a team to agree to do it in the spring before they break up for the summer.
And they’re all like, “Are you crazy? The Cardinals didn’t do that.” And we’re, “But they did! We swear! It’s going to drop on July 1st, and it’s going to be really cool!” And teams were like, “Well, call us next year. If it goes well with the Cardinals, maybe we’ll think about it.”
But one thing that was a big priority for the league last year was to document the Rams move to Los Angeles. We thought that their return home to Southern California was an historic story as the first relocation in a generation. More than that, it was the Rams coming back to LA. And it was something we all knew we needed to document. So we started documenting it from the time the move was announced.
Obviously, Hard Knocks happened. Hard Knocks, from a production standpoint and a relationship standpoint, went really well with [Head] Coach [Jeff] Fisher and with the team. They were very comfortable with our crew and trusted us. So we all agreed it would be an interesting proposition to stick around.
The crew, the footprint is much smaller for All or Nothing. We managed to get through this entire second season without anyone knowing what we were doing. That’s in large part because of how small the crew is. It’s by design. We don’t want people talking about this show during the season if we can avoid it.
The Rams were terrific to work with from the top down. [COO] Kevin Demoff, [General Manager] Les Snead, Jeff Fisher and his staff. The players were great.
And you know, the season started so well, and we thought, “Holy moly. We might’ve caught lightning in a bottle for the second time.”
And then it took a turn, and things changed.
You said you like to pick a team in the spring. Have you picked one for Season 3?
Not yet. We’re working on it, talking to a few teams. Hopefully, we’ll have one lined up pretty soon. When we do, we’ll probably keep it quiet for a while.
But it’s a long process and a serious decision for a team to make. We have to respect that process and go through it and have a lot of conversations with a lot of teams to get there.
You mentioned the 3-1 start. Things looking good. Was there a sense of how things were going to go for the season overall? Did you notice anything different about the Rams compared to the Cardinals from the showrunner’s standpoint?
No, nor did our directors in the field, Shannon Furman or Pat Harris.
No, we thought this team had a lot of talent. Obviously, there were questions on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense was so good. And they were playing genuinely good football that first quarter of the season.
It’s interesting if you go back as you watch the show even through London and even beyond that with the Carolina game, they were losing every one of those games on the last possession. You know, they could have very easily been 5-2 heading into their bye after London.
We might have very easily been talking about a different season.
Yeah, the line really often times seems tenuous. I do wonder what makes the difference between a winning and losing team, especially with the Cardinals season on the NFL Network right now. It’s just so hard to perceive the difference between a winning team and a losing team off the field.
Isn’t that so interesting though? I think that’s one of the real mysteries of the show is how fine that line is in the NFL.
We start this season out with the notion that what you’re about to see happens to 7 or 8 teams every year. And it’s not that these teams don’t have good players. It’s not that their coaches aren’t working their asses off every second of the day, sleeping in the office. It’s not that they’re not brilliant football coaches. They’re the very best in the world at this.
Twenty teams don’t make the playoffs! That is by definition a failure in this league where the expectation is to win every year. Thirty-one teams aren’t going to reach the ultimate goal. Twenty aren’t going to make the playoffs, and about a quarter of them are going to fire their entire coaching staff. Every single year.
And when you stop to consider that, you start to realize how much is at stake for these guys every single day when they come to work. Because if things don’t go well, lives are going to be upended. Families are going to have to relocate. Careers are going to end. It’s a totally different world when you begin to understand it from that perspective.
That’s why the title of the series is All or Nothing.
Yeah, I appreciated the framing with Fisher’s firing up front to start the entire season almost like Sunset Boulevard where we know what’s going to happen but it’s the process that’s most interesting.
I think people are going to walk into this wondering, “Are we going to see what happens really with Jeff Fisher and the coaching staff?” I think there’s that element of the elephant in the room, so I think it was important to give the audience a glimpse of that right out of the gate.
But you know, to go back to your original question about noticing anything different, the answer really is, “No.”
You probably experienced it binge-watching it, there’s not a moment where it’s like, “Oh man, it’s over.” They’re 3-1, and then they lose a close game, and then they lose another close game. It’s not like they did anything different. One different play each of those games and you’re 5-2 or 6-1.
That’s the NFL. It’s that close.
Instead, you’re 3-4. Your offense is really struggling. You’ve got a fan base that wants to see their rookie quarterback. And all of the sudden, things start changing. A couple more losses on top of that, and now you’re starting to get desperate.
It’s not like you feel like you’re watching a train wreck. It’s all unfolding in real time almost in slow motion as a viewer.
Yeah, it’s not like a train wreck. It’s more like a slow train derailment.
How much stuff did you guys have to leave on the cutting room floor either by your decision or by request from the team?
Not that much. Being able to air it six months after the season gives us an opportunity to air so much more of what happens.
I think it’s more a balance of trying to figure out what is going to make the most compelling story for an audience. If you go too heavy on the strategy and the Xs and Os, you’re going to lose a lot of the audience, the casual fans. If you ignore all of the football, then you’re going to lose you, the avid fan.
We want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We want people who are tuning into Amazon to watch Catastrophe or The Man in the High Castle to want to watch this show. You want to appeal to broad audience that loves premium television or content in that serialized, addictive, character-driven storytelling. That’s what we’re aiming to do here.
So you’re trying to hit a lot of categories at once. That’s the balance. It’s not really a question of, “We better leave this bit of strategy on the cutting room floor because it didn’t work out.” It’s more just that we don’t want to bore you. We want you to be interested in what happens next.
It’s a balance. The whole show’s a balance.
Clearly, a big part of the story was just about the return of the NFL to Los Angeles, something that was both new and familiar at the same time. Did you guys pick up on anything from the city, the market that was distinct, on how LA was reacting to the Rams and not just the other way around?
I think everybody noticed in that first month that there was genuine excitement. When they filled the Coliseum for that Seattle game and you had the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers playing...
We made a decision to cover that game as if it was a playoff game. We mic’ed more people than we probably ever have in a regular season game between the players, wives and coaches. So we really covered that game, and I think it shows. We spent about 15 minutes on that game.
The excitement was genuine. LA was ready for that team and for football, and I think LA was really responding. When you see Case Keenum going in to be on Ryan Seacrest’s show with his wife, they were riding high.
But it’s LA. There’s a lot to do there. If you’re not winning, they’re going to find something else to do. The imperative in LA is that you have to win pretty consistently. Every sports team in that town knows that. The Rams are no exception, and the Chargers will find that out pretty quickly.
Once you get there, you have to win.
What have you guys as a production team learned from these first two seasons that you’re going to do differently moving forward?
Good question.
We’re constantly learning. From Year 1 to Year 2, this show got technically much better.
We had a lot more cameras in the right places that allowed us to capture, say, the day Jeff Fisher was let go. That made a huge difference. We had more cameras on the practice field, more players and coaches mic’ed up during practice.
We shoot everything from a distance. We try not to be up in everybody’s face, because we don’t want them to be aware of us. We really want to be the proverbial flies on the wall. “You guys have your football season.
We’ll be here off to the side documenting it.” You can always get better at that, but that’s sort of been our project at NFL Films for 55 years: how to capture these people and their lives as a team doing their thing as well as it can possibly be captured.
We’re constantly looking for better ways to do things. We’re already investigating better ways to capture sound in those meeting rooms and some other technical advancements that will help us in Season 3. We’re always looking for ways to improve the product.
One of the areas of improvement this year from Season 1 to Season 2, we didn’t have a camera in the Cardinals’ coaches booth until very late in Season 1. We knew from Hard Knocks that those add a lot, add a dimension. We got a camera in the coaches booth in the playoffs in the Arizona series in the last couple of episodes.
But here, we got a camera in the coaches booth very early in the season, and we kept it there the entire season, home and on the road. It’s very complex to rig those up in every different stadium the team travels to. But you can see watching it how valuable those shots are.
Those moments when they lose the game in Detroit and you sit there with [Offensive Coordinator] Rob Boras in that booth after Case Keenum throws an interception at the end on a pass attempt to Lance Kendricks and you sit there with Boras as he actually apologizes to the other coaches in the booth and then just sits there for like a minute...
you’re right at that moment at a place that it’s impossible to not understand how much these people care, how hard they’ve worked, how much they’ve invested and how much is at stake for all of them in these games.
You know, we sit there at home. We watch these games. We scream at our TVs. We want to call up the radio station or write on our blogs and in our papers this coach has got to get fired and that coach isn’t up to the job. When you actually see these guys do the job in a moment like that?
How helpless they are that far from the field? When they call a play and it gets executed and it doesn’t go right? It’s excruciating. And it can’t help but change your perspective of all this a little bit.
I’m surprised. When you talked about what you learned, I thought you guys would have learned to watch out for falling goalposts with the wind.
(I was alluding to a moment in episode 6 where heavy winds blew some goalposts down; it’s also the episode in which Fisher got fired.)
We learned a lot. How about that day with the wind all in the middle of everything...
You know, show 6. Here’s one thing to note with that episode. We anticipated that some people are going to want to tune in and just watch that episode for obvious reasons. So we did construct that episode in such a way that it can stand on its own.
Even if you haven’t watched the first five, you can watch that one and get it. Now I think if you take the time to watch the first five and understand how they arrive at that moment when Jeff Fisher is fired, I think you’ll get a lot more out of it.
On one level, that was something we thought might be pretty important with that episode that it be a standalone episode. We know it’s the moment that people are going to talk about most and remember.
You know, nobody ever told us to stop rolling the cameras that day. And that’s a testament to our directors Shannon Furman and Pat Harris and the crew that was on site that day that Coach Fisher and the team trusted them to that degree.
Having the cameras where they are, you’re able to not be in the room with them and just roll. We operate those cameras remotely. And I think what emerged is something very powerful.
There’s been a lot of these access shows over the years, 24/7, Hard Knocks, other sports that have dipped their toes into the all-access waters. A lot of them have been excellent. But there’s never been a show until All or Nothing that spends every day of an entire season with the team. This season, we shot 1,200 hours with the Rams.
When you get to that moment and you build up the trust and the relationship, they’re used to it. They trust. They’re going about their business, and we’re able to capture something none of those shows have ever captured. I don’t think any show has ever captured a coach being fired in the middle of the season.
And it’s not just the moment that Jeff Fisher gets fired that’s important. It’s the fallout. It’s what happens after he leaves the room, and you’re left in this silence with this group of people who now have to pick up the pieces and are, really, traumatized. It’s a horrible moment in all of their lives. And you have to handle it very carefully.
Our goal is to show the world a side of the NFL that no one has ever seen, but to do it in such a way that humanizes all of these people and gives us an opportunity to understand the life that they’ve chosen. How challenging it is. What’s at stake for them. What can happen when it does go bad, when a coach does get fired.
When you see the emotional response, I would think it’s pretty powerful for everybody.
Interview With Keith Cossrow, All Or Nothing Showrunner
We got to speak with the man behind the show detailing the 2016 Los Angeles Rams
by 3k
All or Nothing Season 2
I had a chance to speak with Keith Cossrow, Coordinating Producer and showrunner for All or Nothing, NFL Films’ show about a year in the life of an NFL Franchise.
Last night, the second season of the show launched on Amazon Prime Video chronicling the Los Angeles Rams 2016 season.
I talked to Cossrow about the show, his role and how the series will move beyond Season 2.
How long have you been with NFL Films? Were you with the show from the conceptual phase prior to Season 1, and how did you come to be a part of this?
Yeah, I’ve been in charge of it from the get go, Season 1. I’ve been the showrunner for both seasons. I’ve been with NFL Films for 20 years since 1997, 20 seasons as we like to say.
So how did the idea of the show, prior to the Rams, how did that develop?
Since Hard Knocks was born, it was viewed as the Holy Grail. “When are you guys gonna do a Hard Knocks on the regular season?”
We always thought it was impossible, because the two things teams talk about most during the regular season are injuries and strategy. You just can’t show that stuff in real-time the way you do Hard Knocks where it’s the preseason with a different set of storylines that can be shared much easier.
So we thought, it’s never going to happen. And even if it does, it’s not going to be very good, because we won’t be able to show anything.
And then this [Arizona] Cardinals thing developed last year, and we started to figure out that maybe we could shoot the whole thing, not tell anybody because we didn’t know how it was gonna turn out, keep it a secret, put the whole thing together and then air the whole thing after the season was over betting that the content would be compelling enough and unique enough and the access would be extraordinary enough that people would be interested in watching it.
We found a partner in Amazon who aligned with that point of view and thought it would fit their audience and what they were looking to do with sports and original programming in the way they like to do on-demand streaming and bingeable content. We had never done a binge show before, so it was really exciting to get into this format with Amazon.
The rest is history.
We did the Cardinals season. It went spectacularly well. Amazon had great results, and it won the Emmy for Serialized Sports Documentary, and we were on to Season 2.
How did that transition work, going from the Cardinals to selecting the Rams? How did that happen?
Well, it’s always a challenge to pick a team whether it’s Hard Knocks or this.
Were you guys under the same constraints as Hard Knocks with the rules like no playoffs, no new head coach?
No, there are no rules for this. It’s so new...
The challenge last year was that nobody had seen the show when we were asking them if they want to do it. We said, “Well, we did this thing with the Cardinals, and it’s coming out soon.” You’re trying to get a team to agree to do it in the spring before they break up for the summer.
And they’re all like, “Are you crazy? The Cardinals didn’t do that.” And we’re, “But they did! We swear! It’s going to drop on July 1st, and it’s going to be really cool!” And teams were like, “Well, call us next year. If it goes well with the Cardinals, maybe we’ll think about it.”
But one thing that was a big priority for the league last year was to document the Rams move to Los Angeles. We thought that their return home to Southern California was an historic story as the first relocation in a generation. More than that, it was the Rams coming back to LA. And it was something we all knew we needed to document. So we started documenting it from the time the move was announced.
Obviously, Hard Knocks happened. Hard Knocks, from a production standpoint and a relationship standpoint, went really well with [Head] Coach [Jeff] Fisher and with the team. They were very comfortable with our crew and trusted us. So we all agreed it would be an interesting proposition to stick around.
The crew, the footprint is much smaller for All or Nothing. We managed to get through this entire second season without anyone knowing what we were doing. That’s in large part because of how small the crew is. It’s by design. We don’t want people talking about this show during the season if we can avoid it.
The Rams were terrific to work with from the top down. [COO] Kevin Demoff, [General Manager] Les Snead, Jeff Fisher and his staff. The players were great.
And you know, the season started so well, and we thought, “Holy moly. We might’ve caught lightning in a bottle for the second time.”
And then it took a turn, and things changed.
You said you like to pick a team in the spring. Have you picked one for Season 3?
Not yet. We’re working on it, talking to a few teams. Hopefully, we’ll have one lined up pretty soon. When we do, we’ll probably keep it quiet for a while.
But it’s a long process and a serious decision for a team to make. We have to respect that process and go through it and have a lot of conversations with a lot of teams to get there.
You mentioned the 3-1 start. Things looking good. Was there a sense of how things were going to go for the season overall? Did you notice anything different about the Rams compared to the Cardinals from the showrunner’s standpoint?
No, nor did our directors in the field, Shannon Furman or Pat Harris.
No, we thought this team had a lot of talent. Obviously, there were questions on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense was so good. And they were playing genuinely good football that first quarter of the season.
It’s interesting if you go back as you watch the show even through London and even beyond that with the Carolina game, they were losing every one of those games on the last possession. You know, they could have very easily been 5-2 heading into their bye after London.
We might have very easily been talking about a different season.
Yeah, the line really often times seems tenuous. I do wonder what makes the difference between a winning and losing team, especially with the Cardinals season on the NFL Network right now. It’s just so hard to perceive the difference between a winning team and a losing team off the field.
Isn’t that so interesting though? I think that’s one of the real mysteries of the show is how fine that line is in the NFL.
We start this season out with the notion that what you’re about to see happens to 7 or 8 teams every year. And it’s not that these teams don’t have good players. It’s not that their coaches aren’t working their asses off every second of the day, sleeping in the office. It’s not that they’re not brilliant football coaches. They’re the very best in the world at this.
Twenty teams don’t make the playoffs! That is by definition a failure in this league where the expectation is to win every year. Thirty-one teams aren’t going to reach the ultimate goal. Twenty aren’t going to make the playoffs, and about a quarter of them are going to fire their entire coaching staff. Every single year.
And when you stop to consider that, you start to realize how much is at stake for these guys every single day when they come to work. Because if things don’t go well, lives are going to be upended. Families are going to have to relocate. Careers are going to end. It’s a totally different world when you begin to understand it from that perspective.
That’s why the title of the series is All or Nothing.
Yeah, I appreciated the framing with Fisher’s firing up front to start the entire season almost like Sunset Boulevard where we know what’s going to happen but it’s the process that’s most interesting.
I think people are going to walk into this wondering, “Are we going to see what happens really with Jeff Fisher and the coaching staff?” I think there’s that element of the elephant in the room, so I think it was important to give the audience a glimpse of that right out of the gate.
But you know, to go back to your original question about noticing anything different, the answer really is, “No.”
You probably experienced it binge-watching it, there’s not a moment where it’s like, “Oh man, it’s over.” They’re 3-1, and then they lose a close game, and then they lose another close game. It’s not like they did anything different. One different play each of those games and you’re 5-2 or 6-1.
That’s the NFL. It’s that close.
Instead, you’re 3-4. Your offense is really struggling. You’ve got a fan base that wants to see their rookie quarterback. And all of the sudden, things start changing. A couple more losses on top of that, and now you’re starting to get desperate.
It’s not like you feel like you’re watching a train wreck. It’s all unfolding in real time almost in slow motion as a viewer.
Yeah, it’s not like a train wreck. It’s more like a slow train derailment.
How much stuff did you guys have to leave on the cutting room floor either by your decision or by request from the team?
Not that much. Being able to air it six months after the season gives us an opportunity to air so much more of what happens.
I think it’s more a balance of trying to figure out what is going to make the most compelling story for an audience. If you go too heavy on the strategy and the Xs and Os, you’re going to lose a lot of the audience, the casual fans. If you ignore all of the football, then you’re going to lose you, the avid fan.
We want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We want people who are tuning into Amazon to watch Catastrophe or The Man in the High Castle to want to watch this show. You want to appeal to broad audience that loves premium television or content in that serialized, addictive, character-driven storytelling. That’s what we’re aiming to do here.
So you’re trying to hit a lot of categories at once. That’s the balance. It’s not really a question of, “We better leave this bit of strategy on the cutting room floor because it didn’t work out.” It’s more just that we don’t want to bore you. We want you to be interested in what happens next.
It’s a balance. The whole show’s a balance.
Clearly, a big part of the story was just about the return of the NFL to Los Angeles, something that was both new and familiar at the same time. Did you guys pick up on anything from the city, the market that was distinct, on how LA was reacting to the Rams and not just the other way around?
I think everybody noticed in that first month that there was genuine excitement. When they filled the Coliseum for that Seattle game and you had the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers playing...
We made a decision to cover that game as if it was a playoff game. We mic’ed more people than we probably ever have in a regular season game between the players, wives and coaches. So we really covered that game, and I think it shows. We spent about 15 minutes on that game.
The excitement was genuine. LA was ready for that team and for football, and I think LA was really responding. When you see Case Keenum going in to be on Ryan Seacrest’s show with his wife, they were riding high.
But it’s LA. There’s a lot to do there. If you’re not winning, they’re going to find something else to do. The imperative in LA is that you have to win pretty consistently. Every sports team in that town knows that. The Rams are no exception, and the Chargers will find that out pretty quickly.
Once you get there, you have to win.
What have you guys as a production team learned from these first two seasons that you’re going to do differently moving forward?
Good question.
We’re constantly learning. From Year 1 to Year 2, this show got technically much better.
We had a lot more cameras in the right places that allowed us to capture, say, the day Jeff Fisher was let go. That made a huge difference. We had more cameras on the practice field, more players and coaches mic’ed up during practice.
We shoot everything from a distance. We try not to be up in everybody’s face, because we don’t want them to be aware of us. We really want to be the proverbial flies on the wall. “You guys have your football season.
We’ll be here off to the side documenting it.” You can always get better at that, but that’s sort of been our project at NFL Films for 55 years: how to capture these people and their lives as a team doing their thing as well as it can possibly be captured.
We’re constantly looking for better ways to do things. We’re already investigating better ways to capture sound in those meeting rooms and some other technical advancements that will help us in Season 3. We’re always looking for ways to improve the product.
One of the areas of improvement this year from Season 1 to Season 2, we didn’t have a camera in the Cardinals’ coaches booth until very late in Season 1. We knew from Hard Knocks that those add a lot, add a dimension. We got a camera in the coaches booth in the playoffs in the Arizona series in the last couple of episodes.
But here, we got a camera in the coaches booth very early in the season, and we kept it there the entire season, home and on the road. It’s very complex to rig those up in every different stadium the team travels to. But you can see watching it how valuable those shots are.
Those moments when they lose the game in Detroit and you sit there with [Offensive Coordinator] Rob Boras in that booth after Case Keenum throws an interception at the end on a pass attempt to Lance Kendricks and you sit there with Boras as he actually apologizes to the other coaches in the booth and then just sits there for like a minute...
you’re right at that moment at a place that it’s impossible to not understand how much these people care, how hard they’ve worked, how much they’ve invested and how much is at stake for all of them in these games.
You know, we sit there at home. We watch these games. We scream at our TVs. We want to call up the radio station or write on our blogs and in our papers this coach has got to get fired and that coach isn’t up to the job. When you actually see these guys do the job in a moment like that?
How helpless they are that far from the field? When they call a play and it gets executed and it doesn’t go right? It’s excruciating. And it can’t help but change your perspective of all this a little bit.
I’m surprised. When you talked about what you learned, I thought you guys would have learned to watch out for falling goalposts with the wind.
(I was alluding to a moment in episode 6 where heavy winds blew some goalposts down; it’s also the episode in which Fisher got fired.)
We learned a lot. How about that day with the wind all in the middle of everything...
You know, show 6. Here’s one thing to note with that episode. We anticipated that some people are going to want to tune in and just watch that episode for obvious reasons. So we did construct that episode in such a way that it can stand on its own.
Even if you haven’t watched the first five, you can watch that one and get it. Now I think if you take the time to watch the first five and understand how they arrive at that moment when Jeff Fisher is fired, I think you’ll get a lot more out of it.
On one level, that was something we thought might be pretty important with that episode that it be a standalone episode. We know it’s the moment that people are going to talk about most and remember.
You know, nobody ever told us to stop rolling the cameras that day. And that’s a testament to our directors Shannon Furman and Pat Harris and the crew that was on site that day that Coach Fisher and the team trusted them to that degree.
Having the cameras where they are, you’re able to not be in the room with them and just roll. We operate those cameras remotely. And I think what emerged is something very powerful.
There’s been a lot of these access shows over the years, 24/7, Hard Knocks, other sports that have dipped their toes into the all-access waters. A lot of them have been excellent. But there’s never been a show until All or Nothing that spends every day of an entire season with the team. This season, we shot 1,200 hours with the Rams.
When you get to that moment and you build up the trust and the relationship, they’re used to it. They trust. They’re going about their business, and we’re able to capture something none of those shows have ever captured. I don’t think any show has ever captured a coach being fired in the middle of the season.
And it’s not just the moment that Jeff Fisher gets fired that’s important. It’s the fallout. It’s what happens after he leaves the room, and you’re left in this silence with this group of people who now have to pick up the pieces and are, really, traumatized. It’s a horrible moment in all of their lives. And you have to handle it very carefully.
Our goal is to show the world a side of the NFL that no one has ever seen, but to do it in such a way that humanizes all of these people and gives us an opportunity to understand the life that they’ve chosen. How challenging it is. What’s at stake for them. What can happen when it does go bad, when a coach does get fired.
When you see the emotional response, I would think it’s pretty powerful for everybody.
Zero
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*******************************SPOILER ALERT***************************************************************************
I have watched the whole thing for the most part. I have less respect for fisher than I ever have.
I didn't think that was possible.
At the players meeting,after his firing,fisher pretty much put the blame on the players.
It was freaking disgusting to watch.His speech was something to the effect of
"I hope I didn't let anybody down.I don't think I did.The coaches don't think I did."
The assistants after he left were chiming in about how everyone let coach down.
How can you expect your players to accept responsibility for their mistakes ,if you
as a head coach refuse to do the same.No accountability = A losing football team.
I guess that is one reason why he will never be anything but a losing coach.(barring a huge stroke of luck)
I have zero respect for someone who can't accept responsibility for their mistakes,and it is
only compounded when it comes from a so called leader.
Good Riddance.
I have watched the whole thing for the most part. I have less respect for fisher than I ever have.
I didn't think that was possible.
At the players meeting,after his firing,fisher pretty much put the blame on the players.
It was freaking disgusting to watch.His speech was something to the effect of
"I hope I didn't let anybody down.I don't think I did.The coaches don't think I did."
The assistants after he left were chiming in about how everyone let coach down.
How can you expect your players to accept responsibility for their mistakes ,if you
as a head coach refuse to do the same.No accountability = A losing football team.
I guess that is one reason why he will never be anything but a losing coach.(barring a huge stroke of luck)
I have zero respect for someone who can't accept responsibility for their mistakes,and it is
only compounded when it comes from a so called leader.
Good Riddance.
HeiseNBerg
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To be fair, though, some of the players were also echoing those statements -- Hekker, for instance; and another player whose voiceover was never matched up with a face on video.
BUT -- I don't disagree with you.
Fisher was never a disciplinarian-type coach -- and it showed on Sundays. For the youngest team in the league, they sorely needed discipline and fundamentals. And it didn't appear as if they received enough of either one.
That 8th episode where McVay comes in really gives me hope for the coming years.
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/03/jeff-fisher-wants-to-get-back-on-the-sideline/
Jeff Fisher wants to “get back on the sideline”
Posted by Mike Florio on July 3, 2017
Getty Images
The second season of Amazon’s All or Nothing includes a visit with (spoiler alert) former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on a piece of land he owns outside of Nashville that seemingly covers more than 100 acres. He’s still thinking about the thing that covers only 100 yards.
“I want to get back on the sideline,” Fisher says. “Not going to happen this year, obviously. We’ll just see what happens.”
What happens will be that, in a league with 32 teams, someone likely will give the 59-year-old Fisher another shot. Although it instantly became fashionable to pounce on him a year ago (with Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson kicking the door open to widespread national criticism), Fisher has strong connections at 345 Park Avenue.
Inevitably, there will be an owner who isn’t quite sure what to do when hiring a new head coach. Invariably, that owner will ask one or more high-level executives at the league office for advice. Impossibly (in the opinion of plenty of that team’s fans), Fisher will receive a glowing recommendation.
Yes, Fisher currently sits atop the all-time regular-season loss record with Dan Reeves, knotted at 165. But Fisher has won 173 times, and more often than not his teams are relevant past Thanksgiving, which is the key to keeping fans engaged through the end of the regular season, or at least close to it.
Perhaps more importantly, Fisher has shown that he can coexist with eccentric billionaires. Fisher worked for years with the late Bud Adams, who later in life developed a habit of firing off double-barreled middle fingers. The Oilers/Titans owner made it nearly a full generation without sending that same message to Fisher.
He also lasted nearly five full years with the Rams, a franchise that by many indications was planning to leave St. Louis long before it became obvious that they’d be gone. And Fisher has now presided not once but twice over the relocation of an NFL franchise, experiences that come in handy when shepherding players through distractions.
The question isn’t whether Fisher should or shouldn’t get another chance. The question is whether he will. At some point in the next few years, some owner out there will choose someone who has coached 350 combined regular-season and postseason games over someone who has coached zero of either.
Jeff Fisher wants to “get back on the sideline”
Posted by Mike Florio on July 3, 2017
The second season of Amazon’s All or Nothing includes a visit with (spoiler alert) former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on a piece of land he owns outside of Nashville that seemingly covers more than 100 acres. He’s still thinking about the thing that covers only 100 yards.
“I want to get back on the sideline,” Fisher says. “Not going to happen this year, obviously. We’ll just see what happens.”
What happens will be that, in a league with 32 teams, someone likely will give the 59-year-old Fisher another shot. Although it instantly became fashionable to pounce on him a year ago (with Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson kicking the door open to widespread national criticism), Fisher has strong connections at 345 Park Avenue.
Inevitably, there will be an owner who isn’t quite sure what to do when hiring a new head coach. Invariably, that owner will ask one or more high-level executives at the league office for advice. Impossibly (in the opinion of plenty of that team’s fans), Fisher will receive a glowing recommendation.
Yes, Fisher currently sits atop the all-time regular-season loss record with Dan Reeves, knotted at 165. But Fisher has won 173 times, and more often than not his teams are relevant past Thanksgiving, which is the key to keeping fans engaged through the end of the regular season, or at least close to it.
Perhaps more importantly, Fisher has shown that he can coexist with eccentric billionaires. Fisher worked for years with the late Bud Adams, who later in life developed a habit of firing off double-barreled middle fingers. The Oilers/Titans owner made it nearly a full generation without sending that same message to Fisher.
He also lasted nearly five full years with the Rams, a franchise that by many indications was planning to leave St. Louis long before it became obvious that they’d be gone. And Fisher has now presided not once but twice over the relocation of an NFL franchise, experiences that come in handy when shepherding players through distractions.
The question isn’t whether Fisher should or shouldn’t get another chance. The question is whether he will. At some point in the next few years, some owner out there will choose someone who has coached 350 combined regular-season and postseason games over someone who has coached zero of either.
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I was going to start a thread about this very thing, but I wondered how many care to talk about the next step for FISH. I believe that if McVay's coaching of Jared Goff and the Rams Offense in general results in more wins (especially more than 6 wins), will this be an indictment of Fisher's coaching style? I think it would be, solidifying the idea that his run first, smashmouth football approach is no longer viable in the NFL. At least with the Titans, the guy had a 10 win season after 3 years of mediocre losing football. Not anymore.http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/03/jeff-fisher-wants-to-get-back-on-the-sideline/
Jeff Fisher wants to “get back on the sideline”
Posted by Mike Florio on July 3, 2017
Getty Images
The second season of Amazon’s All or Nothing includes a visit with (spoiler alert) former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on a piece of land he owns outside of Nashville that seemingly covers more than 100 acres. He’s still thinking about the thing that covers only 100 yards.
“I want to get back on the sideline,” Fisher says. “Not going to happen this year, obviously. We’ll just see what happens.”
What happens will be that, in a league with 32 teams, someone likely will give the 59-year-old Fisher another shot. Although it instantly became fashionable to pounce on him a year ago (with Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson kicking the door open to widespread national criticism), Fisher has strong connections at 345 Park Avenue.
Inevitably, there will be an owner who isn’t quite sure what to do when hiring a new head coach. Invariably, that owner will ask one or more high-level executives at the league office for advice. Impossibly (in the opinion of plenty of that team’s fans), Fisher will receive a glowing recommendation.
Yes, Fisher currently sits atop the all-time regular-season loss record with Dan Reeves, knotted at 165. But Fisher has won 173 times, and more often than not his teams are relevant past Thanksgiving, which is the key to keeping fans engaged through the end of the regular season, or at least close to it.
Perhaps more importantly, Fisher has shown that he can coexist with eccentric billionaires. Fisher worked for years with the late Bud Adams, who later in life developed a habit of firing off double-barreled middle fingers. The Oilers/Titans owner made it nearly a full generation without sending that same message to Fisher.
He also lasted nearly five full years with the Rams, a franchise that by many indications was planning to leave St. Louis long before it became obvious that they’d be gone. And Fisher has now presided not once but twice over the relocation of an NFL franchise, experiences that come in handy when shepherding players through distractions.
The question isn’t whether Fisher should or shouldn’t get another chance. The question is whether he will. At some point in the next few years, some owner out there will choose someone who has coached 350 combined regular-season and postseason games over someone who has coached zero of either.
I think he might get a job in NFL front offices maybe?
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Zero
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.They are simply echoing their coach and assistant coaches.
fishers first words should have been"It's on me.I didn't get it done"
As a coach,you shoulder the responsibility. IMO If you hold your self
accountable your team will follow suit.
Absolutely agree.
If you are a ball control offense,the very first thing you have to be
is disciplined.You can not have penalties,the offense isn't designed
to overcome those situations consistently.
Team discipline is not something that can be just talked about.
It has to be ingrained into everything you do on the practice field,meetings etc.
Just another reason why fisher failed.
Amen to this Bro.
So excited about Mcvay.Time will tell,but it feels like we finally got it right.
Aside from him being a great offensive mind,I love the staff he hired.
His choice of coaches seemed to free of ego or paranoia.As all
coaches do,he hired some friends that he has worked with in the past,
but he also went outside his circle for some highly regarded hires.
One hell of a staff IMO.
Ramlock
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I thought that he tried to interview Chudzinski but the Colts blocked it.....Chud is/was a quality coordinator.
Ramlock
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Not necessarily.
A second training camp for Goff in an NFL system instead of a high school offense like the Air Raid may result in better offense all by itself.
But I know that not everyone shares that opinion......
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But Fisher allowed that "high school system" to be installed for a team that never had a winning season during his tenure. Ultimately, he is responsible.
Ramlock
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Fisher did not install Air Raid...I was referring to the Cal offense that Goff operated in college
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I thought you were referring to the "high school offense" that Gurley called the Rams offense last year..No matter, the HC is always responsible.
Ramlock
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So, you don't think that a second NFL training camp may result in an improved Goff?
It's just all on Fisher?