But you don’t care. You’re in a dark theater watching Forrest Gump, dressed in Alabama Crimson Tide garb, employ his blazing speed to blow past would-be tacklers toward the end zone. And then, as we all remember, through the end zone, past the end zone and out of the stadium. You also caught a glimpse of Bear Bryant watching Gump’s amazing run from the sideline.
Great movie scene, huh? Especially for Alabama fans.
What if, however, the Alabama helmet Gump was wearing had a white face-mask? What if there was a cursive ‘A’ on the helmet instead of a numeral? What if Bear Bryant was wearing glasses on the sideline? Would popcorn actually fall out of your mouth because it was gaped open in disbelief?
Did you know there’s a guy who’s job it is to make sure sports gaffs like that don’t happen in the movies so thousands of people don’t end up with gaped-open mouths? His name is John Meindl. He lives in New York. And he heads a company called Sports Branded Media and a division of that company called Sportscine.
Sports has always been a big part of American culture, infiltrating just about every aspect of daily life. The motion picture industry included. And while audiences of the past would likely be more apt to overlook a seemingly insignificant sports inaccuracy in a movie, the margin of error today is far smaller.
Sports product placement -- that’s the fancy word for what Meindl does. Product placement has been around the movie industry a long time, but sports product placement is something new and something Meindl has quickly established himself as the foremost expert in, speaking on the topic at conferences around the world.
“People want authenticity,” Meindl said during a phone interview Thursday. “If the movie people don’t get it right, the movie loses all credibility and they may as well shut the whole production off.”
Heck, as Meindl pointed out, there are even websites out there today whose sole purpose is to nit-pick as many movies as possible and point out every minute inaccuracy, including sports inaccuracy.
“Those people don’t have much of a life, obviously, but there’s people out there who do that,” Meindl said.
Meindl’s job, in essence, is to keep those nit-pickers quiet. And if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s Meindl. The guy knows both worlds – sports and movies. He is a former athlete and a former coach. He’s also been involved in such movies as Alien vs. Predator 2, Georgia Rule and Failure to Launch.
And while Meindl is one who has a solid grasp of both worlds, he’s learned during his time in this business that there are very few other people who do.
“For the most part, actors can’t play sports and athletes can’t act,” he said.
Which is why a big part of what Meindl does is to maintain a database of current and former athletes, current and former coaches, athletic trainers, mascots, Olympic athletes, cheerleaders, referees, boxers and pretty much anybody else who has anything to do with sports. He probably even has concession workers.
“Basically, you name it, we’ve got it,” he said.
It’s from this vast and growing database that Meindl draws from when creating sports scenes for a movie. It’s all a part of making the scenes look as real and authentic as possible.
For example, in a movie that requires a football scene where the lead character is a quarterback, Meindl said he would go ahead and work with the actor in developing the needed quarterback skills so he can continue in that role, but the rest of the players surrounding him would be real athletes – not real actors – drawn from his database.
“We try and keep everyone within their comfort zone,” he said.
So, to bring it closer to home, those Alabama football players who may not have a future in the NFL, there’s still a way they can make a living while continuing to be around the sport they love. And Meindl, who’s been on the University of Alabama campus before and is friends with former Bama great Marty Lyons, would love to work with some former Tide players fresh out of college.
“I like the college age,” he said. “That’s a good age to work with because that’s before they’re completely consumed by money.”
The good news for Tide fans is that as long as Meindl is running the show, they won’t have to worry about their mouths gaping open and popcorn spilling out. Rest assured, Alabama’s helmets will have gray facemasks and numerals on the side.
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