director/cinematographer
I played football starting with Pop Warner as a young kid in 3rd Grade in Texas and through two undefeated high school teams on both coasts. I was a football player. I was recruited at the University of Colorado. I lettered on a very high ranked team as a sophomore. At the end of the season, and ignominiously in practice I got an ACL. 1967. In those days that was it. I became a climber almost immediately after I recovered. My first job out of College was with NFL Films. The year was 1972. I'd made two films by then. I was hired by Big Ed Sabol and worked under Steve his son and Phil Tuckett, both dedicated and very talented filmmakers. But while I learned about the craft of filmmaking and editing and cinematography I knew that I was simply mmyth-making at NFL Films. I vowed to make a documentary that exposed football's violent culture and the devastating effects of football on the human body. Football in America looks at the entirety of the game from youth leagues into the pros. Little did I imagine that I would win an Emmy for this film. It was done with a small crew of me and an assistant Biff Bracht. I also had no clue about what was happening cognitively to the players. That would not start coming out for 20 more years. Today I'm still on the football beat warning parents and players to not sacrifice their bodies and now astonishingly their minds for the very fleeting glory of the game. This film still reverberates today. I was interviewed by the NTY about it in 2016.
nytimes.com/2016/02/05/sports/football/nfl-films-violence-football.html?smid=fb-share
