For most people, even those of us who make a living in the industry, sport matters to a certain degree. But it’s not a matter of life or death.
So when an interviewee told me last year, “If it wasn’t for this football, I would be dead or in jail,” it got my attention, and hard.
Right away, you want to know why. Why did this college-educated young man feel so strongly that his life would have turned gravely for the worse without blocking and tackling?
The thing is, his wasn’t the only interview that day that had that effect on me and my business partner, Tom Fireoved. Tom and I interacted with young men who bucked the odds coming from tough neighborhoods. We also heard from the Ivy League quarterback who felt overlooked because of his lack of gridiron street cred. Those just scratched the surface. In addition to real-life drama, we found plenty of football turmoil, from rows with coaches to multiple school transfers to offensive schemes unsuited for a talented player’s skillset.
What amazed Tom and I was that we heard all these stories in the space of an hour. Upon further consideration, we also realized that the stories weren’t done yet, and that their most crucial chapter to date might be written over the ensuing four days.
The College Gridiron Showcase provides these young football players a chance to write that next chapter. It’s a post-collegiate opportunity for draft-eligible football players to show how they match up with their peers. They go through workouts and off-field activities designed to enable them to prove their readiness to play pro football. Scouts from every NFL team, plus those from the CFL and XFL, traditionally show up for the sixth-year event.
We want to make a TV show out of it.
It’s got all the elements you need for compelling filmmaking - great backstories, high-profile upside, arresting visuals, and genuine drama that plays out over the course of the event (and the programming). And it makes for efficient filming because all the stories come together in less than a week.
For a broadcaster or streaming service, it offers flexibility. It could be a single show or it could be a series of episodes. We can continue to follow the players or end it after the showcase. We could do as much backstory as budgets permit.
It’s also a highly saleable property. CGS can roll in event-specific assets to be sold alongside spot inventory. And opportunities for ancillary digital content abound. Plus, it revolves around America’s most popular sport. And there’s even an international angle, as the CGS brings in football hopefuls trying to make the jump from Europe or Asia.
The CGS bears some similarities to the Senior Bowl or the East-West Shrine Bowl in that it intends to allow draft-eligible football players to show their skills. But CGS uses the word “showcase” instead of “game” or “bowl” because they don’t feel that staging an event-ending exhibition contest best serves their players or scouts. And that’s the other part of this story. The guy who run the showcase have their own grassroots entrepreneurial tale. They built their property up from nothing to something in which every NFL team has seen value. They’ve helped multiple players realize pro football dreams. We think - we know - viewers will find these stories engrossing.
Check out the video that accompanies this post to get a taste of what we’re talking about. Networks and companies who want to know more can contact Tom@MintFarmFilms.comor Rush@MintFarmFilms.com.
