To create a Web site where football enthusiasts can shop for gear and watch videos that will help them train better, interactive agency R/GA, New York, developed NikeGridiron.com for client Nike. For the site, R/GA staffers have added four sets of films that profile the high school beginnings of NFL athletes Champ Bailey of the Denver Broncos, Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears, Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons and LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers. To find the shorts, select the “Features” option and then click on “Icons.” The most recent installment is Discipline: Champ Bailey–Folkston, GA, which involved direction from John Taggart of Production 920, New York.
“Nike Gridiron’s goal for the 2005-06 season was to refocus dialogue with high school athletes,” R/GA associate producer Harshal Sisodia related. “The campaign was created to show this audience that through hard work and dedication, you can achieve your goals on the football field. Nike Gridiron is the ideal place for these young athletes to learn, train and get motivated for the season ahead.”
Discipline, which features four separate documentary-styled clips, “Champ’s House,” “Locker Room” “Practice Field” and “Stadium,” is set in Bailey’s hometown of Folkston at his alma mater Charlton County High School. In “Champ’s House,” the NFL player’s former high school coach Richard McWorter explains that people used to describe him as a “little skinny kid that was running up and down the field that nobody could catch.” In another clip, Bailey says of himself, “I was always skinny, but they never treated me like I was skinny. I was always running people over. I didn’t play skinny. So I think they got over that real quick.”
Old footage from the NFL star’s high school games plays as coaches and former teammates recount Bailey’s high school performance. In a present day image, Bailey is shown next to a sign on campus that reads, “No Excuses.”
In “Locker Room,” coaches continue to talk about how the lessons Bailey learned in high school help him in the NFL. The words from his coaches like “Expect to Win” still live in Bailey’s mind and as he says, “those words mean so much and I carry them through to what I do today. That’s what I live by.”
Sisodia described the work as inspirational, which is a message perfectly suited for the target audience of high school football players. “The viewer is allowed to explore the experiences that shaped the careers of these iconic athletes. What were their locker rooms like? Their training regimens? How did the coaches recognize these athletes were not just ordinary kids? What were some of the lighthearted moments? What were some of their favorite plays?” he noted.
For the overall project, the direction team at R/GA included Can Misirglioglu and Sisodia. From Nike, it was Jesse Stollak and Anthony Abernathy.
Production 920 was involved in the production of all four sets of films: Strength: Brian Urlacher–Lovington, NM, Trust: Michael Vick–Newport News, VA, Heart: LaDainian Tomlinson–Waco, TX, and the aforementioned Discipline: Champ Bailey–Folkston, GA. Taggart was involved in directing the Champ Bailey footage and Steve Schlueter provided direction for the clips on Urlacher.
“The whole town is based around football, it’s really amazing. There’s a saying, ‘Expect to Win” in [the films] and everybody in town was wearing T-shirts that say ‘Expect to Win,’ ” Taggart said of his experience filming in Bailey’s hometown.
The Icons films on NikeGridiron.com are part of a larger Nike Icons initiative. That campaign includes three spots “Strength,” “Trust” and “Heart” that Errol Morris of bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures directed for Weiden+Kennedy, Portland. The spots are also on the Web site.
