VICE TV's 'NFL Classics: After Further Review' looks at old games with a new twist

Kyle Brandt called it “probably the easiest job I’ve ever done.” That can happen when you host a program whose panelists are Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Phil Simms, neither of whom is known as shy.

He was referring to the season finale, premiering on Oct. 8, of a six-part VICE TV show called “NFL Classics: After Further Review,” and the focus was Super Bowl XXI.

That early 1987 day in Pasadena, California, Simms led the Giants to a 39-20 victory over Broncos by completing 22 of 25 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns.

“We did six episodes, and I don’t think I spoke less on any episode than I did on the Phil and ‘Mad Dog’ episode,” Brandt told Newsday. “Any time Phil came up for air, Chris jumped right in. So it was an easy gig.”

The format of the hourlong program is for participants and celebrity guests to watch original telecasts of games from the past and comment on the action.

Previous episodes have included the Jets’ divisional round playoff victory over the Patriots after the 2010 season, one punctuated by Bart Scott saying he “can’t wait” for the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game. (The Jets lost that one.)

VICE Sports teamed for the series with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and NFL Films. Manning introduces each episode and offers commentary.

Panelists appear remotely while game footage is shown in the middle of the screen.

Brandt is both the host and an executive producer.

“I’m at the place in my life right now where, on a Saturday night, after my wife and kids go to bed, I like to watch concerts,” Brandt, 46, said. “I open my laptop and I'll pull up a concert from 1992 or I'll watch a Led Zeppelin concert from 1975. I'll watch the whole thing.

“This show is like if you watch the concert, but you watch it with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and they break down every song and every track and every solo.”

Super Bowl XXI is the longest-ago game featured in this first season, which offers the additional novelty of seeing how games were telecast in those dark ages.

“It is so jarring to look at for a young person,” Brandt said. “There's no scoreboard on the screen. There's no clock on the screen. There's no down and distance. You don't know if it's the third or first quarter, if it's 31-0.”

In the show, Simms talks about how calm he was before the big game.

“I got in the huddle and I swear we got guys who were hyperventilating before the first play,” he says. “For some reason that day I didn’t feel any nerves or anything.”

Brandt said of the format, “The two guests show up, I show up, and we just watch the game and talk ball, ad lib, tell stories. A lot of times, I have things planned like, ‘There's this big play in the third quarter where you throw it to Mark Bavaro.’

“But in this case, Simms and ‘Dog’ are off on tangent number 56 about some other thing that happened in the game. You just don't force it. Don't stop and redo it. So that made it like a real living, breathing show for me.”

Trevor Gill, vice president of sports development at VICE TV, said, “There's obviously so many great sports documentaries being made, and we still are doing the more traditional narrative sports documentaries.

“But we thought, working with the team at Omaha, of how we can sort of flip the switch and look back at history, but in a more active format.”

Gill grew up in Westchester County and his late grandfather, Arnold Gill, was a Shea Stadium usher for more than 40 years.

At 32, Gill is not old enough to remember Super Bowl XXI, but he is old enough to remember listening to “Mike and the Mad Dog” on WFAN.

“’Mad Dog’ in the episode talks about how the Mets winning in ‘86 and then the Giants winning he believes is the reason why WFAN launched in [July] ‘87 and was the explosion of sports talk radio at that time,” Gill said.

“He makes the point in the episode that if both of those things don't happen, maybe we're looking at a different timeline.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.