"Pro football took over the country, and NFL Films had a lot to do with it."

So said Ernie Accorsi, a 30-year front office honcho with the New York Giants. It's no deep insight to say that television and broadcast technologies have changed everything, but the effect of TV on sports has been profound. Baseball, which was the national pasttime, has given way to football, and television has had a lot to do with that transformation. (Video games are another influence, more on that later).

Tyler Cowen recently wrote:

Sports is both big business and a significant part of American and global culture. I think of sports as a form of drama, except the events in question really matter to the participants, rather than stemming from a staged script. I question the common elitist view that sports are somehow inferior per se to high culture.

This was the chief insight of the creators of NFL films and it's why the HBO show "Real Sports" is among the best shows on television (despite that human water torture of a host, Bryant Gumbel). They harness the drama endemic to sports and package it for millions.

BTW: Smart money is on the Panthers for Sunday.