FanPost

For $70, NFL will give you access to the coaches tape!


Starting in 2012, the online NFL’s Game Rewind feature will include access to the mysterious and secretive “All-22″ coaches film.

Spotted by the folks at Deadspin, it’s a nonchalantly-added wrinkle to the one-penny-less-than-$70 package, anyone who buys Game Rewind will be able to view, among other things, “Coaches Film for every play in 2012.”

Frankly, the league could charge much more than $69.99 for access to the coaches film alone, and virtually everyone in the media would buy it. Instead, the league hopes to maximize the total number of folks who purchase the package by making the All-22 available as part of a broader collection of video with a very affordable price.

The move surely didn’t come without a fight. As Deadspin points out, an item last year from the Wall Street Journal explains that former Redskins and Texans G.M. Charley Casserly was opposed to disclosing the footage. ”[H]e voted against releasing All-22 footage because he worried that if fans had access, it would open players and teams up to a level of criticism far beyond the current hum of talk radio,” Reed Albergotti of “the Wall” wrote. ”Casserly believed fans would jump to conclusions after watching one or two games in the All 22, without knowing the full story.”