Peter Berg is directing the show opens for all four of Netflix’s NFL gameday livestreams this season — and for the first one, debuting Thursday, he drafted Kyle Chandler, star of the “Friday Night Lights” TV series, for an assist on the play.
Berg directed the 2004 movie “Friday Night Lights,” about a high school football team in Texas, and Chandler portrayed Coach Taylor in the TV series adaptation that first aired on NBC.
The first of Berg’s NFL pregame teasers debuts Sept. 10 during Netflix’s broadcast from Melbourne, Australia, featuring the Los Angeles Rams vs. the San Francisco 49ers (coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. PT). He’ll also direct openers for Netflix’s other NFL gamedays (Green Bay Packers vs. Rams on Thanksgiving Eve; Packers vs. Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos on Christmas Day; and a Week 18 game on Jan. 9, 2027, with the teams TBA).
Berg’s Sept. 10 opener, “For the Love of Football,” runs 2 minutes and intercuts scenes of kids’ football teams (and their coaches) with footage from NFL games — giving it an overt “Friday Night Lights” vibe.
“And so it begins. Right here, right now. Today,” Chandler says at the beginning of the clip. “You are going to win. You’ll use your eyes to win. Your eyes will show you the truth. You’ll recognize it whether you like it or not.”
Later, Chandler says in the voiceover, “You’ll play with your eyes clear and your heart full. If you can do that and then do it again and again, I assure you, you cannot lose… Clear eyes, full hearts. Can’t lose.”
Apart from the NFL gameday teasers, Berg was already in business with Netflix. He directed, wrote and produced the movie “The Mosquito Bowl,” bowing in theaters on Oct. 30 ahead of its Nov. 25 release on Netflix. The sports drama is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, based on the true story of four top American top college football stars who set aside their fame to enlist in the Marines following the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Watch Berg’s “For the Love of Football,” which opens the Rams-49ers game on Sept. 10: