• Loading stock data...
Thursday, September 18, 2025

‘Light Knocks’: NFL Teams Like The Colts Creating Their Own Digital Docu-Series

colts-light-knocks
With The Next Pick: Colts GM Chris Ballard on Draft Night. Photo Credit: Indianapolis Colts

The scene was a shell-shocked Lucas Oil Stadium. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck had just stunned the sports world by announcing his retirement at age 29. 

The video production team quickly sprang into action, shooting reaction interviews with head coach Frank Reich, general manager Chris Ballard, new starting QB Jacoby Brissett and T.Y. Hilton, Luck’s best friend after entering the league together in 2012. Those were all edited and then laid down on top of a track of foreboding music. 

The video cuts to the coach and GM trying to buoy the spirit of Colts fans by adopting a “Next Man Up” approach at training camp. “Everyone makes a unique contribution on this team. Yet everyone is replaceable,” Reich notes.

Was this HBO Sports shooting another edition of the Emmy Award-winning Hard Knocks? No. Instead, it was the team’s own in-house digital/video/audio platform telling the Horseshoe’s story from the inside out.  

“Affectionately we call ours Light Knocks,” said Roger VanDerSnick, the team’s chief sales, and marketing officer. “But our crew is embedded in training camp much like the HBO team is. I think you’ll see our stories maybe a little less sensationalized, a little more measured. A little more appropriate for the tone and approach of the Indianapolis Colts.”

As the NFL embarks on its historic 100th season, teams like the Colts are increasingly looking to tell their own stories as digital documentary film-makers.

Launched in April, the new Colts Productions has rolled out four original content series this year. Together, they’ve generated over 24 million impressions — and boosted the team’s YouTube subscribers by 40%. As a bonus, Bud Light and Xfinity have signed up as sponsors.

The four-part Behind the Colts training camp series is the most Hard Knocks-like. There’s also the five-part With the Next Pick, detailing the team’s journey to the 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville. Plus Colts Life and Colts Forged, two episodic series that tell the personal stories of players like Darius Leonard and Anthony Walker.

No, the team hasn’t hired famous actors like Liev Schrieber to handle the narration ala HBO. There’s no Jon Gruden of the Oakland Raiders growling that he’s into “f—–g nightmares.” 

Today’s NFL fans want more access to players, coaches and front office execs across digital and audio platforms. This season, the Colts made a “strategic decision” to tell their story in a way that goes beyond the usual jargon, VanDerSnick said. 

“We really want to think about space as storytellers. If you get to our web site you’ll see long-form production that’s of very, very high quality. That goes behind the scenes of the training camp. That profile individual players. That talk about Deon Cain, who’s coming back this year from a pretty significant knee injury last year,” he said. “For us this is new. We’re really pleased with some of the results we’re seeing with our long-form content. It’s much, much different than talking about X’s and O’s.”

READ MORE: Eagles Take Flight With Podcasting Strategy

This kind of commitment doesn’t come cheap. To make Colts Productions a reality, the team had to hire 10 new staffers, including video expert Dave Knickerbocker, a former Chicago Blackhawks executive who came aboard as vice president of content and production a year ago. The Colts now boast a state of the art studio and production department. 

This year’s hiring spree nearly doubled the size of the Colts’ media operation, making it one of the largest in the state of Indiana. Trying to take an HBO or ESPN 30 for 30-like documentary film approach is no easy task. But given results so far, VanDerSnick thinks it’s working.

“It’s a little easier to do 60-second videos that talk about the Xs and Os in a game. But to really get into the meat of a story, and bring that to life about a player, about where they came from, what they’ve had to go through to get here, that takes a real commitment in terms of resources. And we’ve done that,” he said.

The Colts are not only NFL club ramping up their video storytelling. 

The Tennessee Titans, their competitors in the AFC South, are offering fans digital mini-series like Behind the Flame and Igniting the Fire

Over in the AFC West, the Raiders debuted a three-part series called More Than Rookies, which delves into the lives of the team’s first-year players as they don the Silver and Black.

“I think both sponsors and teams are trying to provide fans insight that’s non-traditional, that gives them some exposure to the club behind the curtain,” explained Ralph Ockenfels, the Titans’ vice president of corporate sponsorships. 

The tradition of the league, and its teams, doing their own documentary work goes back to Ed and Steve Sabol’s NFL Films in the 1960s, noted George Solomon, director of the University of Maryland’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism. 

Think of those glorious, slow-motion shots of footballs spiraling through the fall skies. Not for nothing did Salon call NFL Films the greatest in-house PR machine in pro sports history. The Colts and other clubs are effectively setting up mini NFL Films units with their own organizations.

READ MORE: Exclusive: NFL Planning Business Partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation

What’s new are NFL teams effectively becoming “competitors” to traditional TV, radio and newspaper outlets, according to Solomon. 

“The teams have become their own media,” he said.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

$3.8 Billion Commanders Stadium Deal Approved Despite Late Drama

A decisive final vote on the stadium followed some last-minute snags.
Donald Trump
exclusive

Trump’s Unprecedented Super Bowl Visit Cost Secret Service More Than $120K

Trump was the first president to attend the Super Bowl.
Maria Taylor

Maria Taylor Talks About ‘Moving Differently’ in ESPN-NBC Jump

Taylor will be NBC Sports’ lead NBA and WNBA studio host.

Featured Today

Premier Lacrosse League

‘The Circus Is Coming to Town’: Why Upstart Leagues Start on Tour

In their ambitious plans, a traveling schedule is only temporary.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 19: A detailed view of the MLB Debut patch on the jersey of Patrick Monteverde #44 of the Miami Marlins prior to game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
September 13, 2025

The Tiny Jersey Patch at the Center of the MLB Rookie Card..

Autographed cards containing a piece of baseball history have upended the market.
September 11, 2025

Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl Rematch Could Set More NFL Ratings Records

Fox will nationally televise Sunday afternoon’s matchup.
September 10, 2025

ESPN’s ‘MNF’ Ratings Up 8% As NFL Surges to Strong Start

ESPN posts its second-best Week 1 “Monday Night Football” audience.

Fever Ratings Fall Without Clark, but Rest of WNBA Game 1s Surge

The Indiana Fever game drew 47% fewer viewers this year.
exclusive
September 16, 2025

ESPN, Fox One Added 1M Sign-Ups in First 10 Days After Launch

The two high-profile streaming services have strong starts with consumers.
Sep 14, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith (6) makes a reception defended by Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie (22) during the fourth quarter of the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
September 16, 2025

Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl Rematch Sets Early NFL TV Ratings Mark

Several new milestones are established with the big early-season matchup.
Sponsored

How World Series Champ Dexter Fowler Became a Premier League Team Owner

Dexter Fowler discusses navigating retirement and embracing new roles as an owner & investor.
Greg Olsen
September 16, 2025

Greg Olsen on Tom Brady’s Raiders Role: ‘More Power to Him’

This season, the NFL has relaxed the special Brady broadcasting rules.
Jul 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Injured Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) looks on from the bench during the first half of a basketball game against the Chicago Sky at United Center.
September 15, 2025

WNBA Ratings Rise 3% in 2025 Despite Clark’s Absence

Caitlin Clark played in just 13 of 44 regular-season games.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) breaks up a pass intended for Washington Commanders wide receiver Noah Brown (85) on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Packers won the game, 27-18.
September 15, 2025

Amazon Shatters Previous Ratings High for 1st NFL Game

“TNF” viewership surges 35% compared to the 2024 season average.
Las Vegas Aces
September 15, 2025

WNBA Playoffs Face ESPN Fall Crunch For Final Time

The games will be spread across three networks next year.