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You probably don’t know John Facenda, but you’ve certainly heard his voice: For decades, he was the gravelly-throated narrator of NFL Films. Dubbed “The Voice of God” for his deep, booming delivery, he died in 1984 at age 71 and never really received the credit he deserved for mythologizing pro football.
It wasn’t intentional. The NFL wasn’t trying to turn its slow-motion footage into a marketing campaign. It just kind of happened that way: In 1965, Facenda was drinking at a local tavern, chatting over the slow-mo NFL clips on the TV. Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL Films, overheard him and asked if he could talk like that with a script. The rest is history.
HBO Sports coopted the formula with its boxing telecasts in the 1980s and 1990s, airing short documentary films about each fighter to hype up the bout. It elevated the stakes, transforming a clash between boxers into a complex, irresistible morality play.
That’s how it goes in television: When someone figures out a successful formula, everyone else copies it. TV either takes a good idea and beats it into the ground or it takes a bad idea and beats it into the ground. It’s a monkey-see-monkey-do, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality.
Pre-Facenda, nobody understood the transformative power of gravel-voiced narration — plus slow-motion footage — along with classical music underscoring the mayhem. But it works. NFL Films has won 112 Sports Emmys and turned mere mortals into larger-than-life legends.
This is the mood I’m trying to evoke for your Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris “Tale of the Tape” preview:
In a critical clash to determine the future of the Free World, two deadly gladiators will collide in the City of Brotherly Love — but there’s no love lost between these two titans. Donald Trump is the old lion, ready to reclaim his rightful place in his kingdom. Kamala Harris is the reigning VP, driven by an insatiable quest to conquer the old lion and claim his kingdom for herself. They’ll be getting it on… ‘cuz they don’t get along! Since they hate, they’ve gotta debate! This Tuesday at 9 p.m. — be there!
(Okay, it’s not poetic like The Thrilla in Manilla, but what am I supposed to do with a debate in Philadelphia? Getting Silly in Philly doesn’t really work, either.)
Here’s the breakdown:
AGE: Donald Trump is 78 years old. Kamala Harris turns 60 next month.
SPEAKING STYLE: The Trump we see at campaign rallies isn’t the same Trump who appears at presidential debates. He’s at his best when he’s loose, having fun, and assuming the role of the rational outsider who’s mad as hell and had it with the greed and incompetence of professional politicians. Alas, all too often at debates, Trump gets weirdly nasal, inhaling through his nose so loudly that it overwhelms his microphone. Recently, he’s been veering from soft-spoken, subdued, and — dare I say it: low energy — too scattershot with his grievances.
