It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows.

Founder Ed Sabol was a World War II veteran who worked selling topcoats after returning to the United States.

In his spare time, he used a motion picture camera, received as a wedding gift, to record his son Steve's high school football games.

He received $20,000 in seed money from each of the league's then 14 owners, and in return would shoot all NFL games and produce an annual highlight film for each team.

New England Patriots play-by-play announcer Gil Santos narrated the year-in-review films of the 1974, 1976, and 1978 seasons, and New Orleans Saints films from their inception in 1967 through 1979 were narrated by Don Criqui, who called Saints games for the NFL on CBS in the team's early years, along with radio announcers Al Wester and Wayne Mack.

Longtime KDKA radio & KDKA-TV personality Larry Richert often narrated films of the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to becoming the team's PA announcer at Acrisure Stadium and continues to do so today.

The style of film has been called tight on the spiral, a reference to the frequently-used slow-motion shot of the spinning football as it travels from the quarterback's hand to the receiver.

In addition, NFL Films often uses multiple camera angles (with an emphasis on close-up shots that often exaggerate the speed of the players in real-time).

The company's films also employ muscular orchestral scores from a wide variety of musicians, notably Sam Spence, Johnny Pearson (whose "Heavy Action" became the theme for Monday Night Football) Frank Rothman, Ralph Dollimore, Udi Harpaz, Malcolm Lockyer, Jan Stoeckart (under his varied stage names such as Jack Trombey), Peter Reno, Paul Lewis, Prameela Tomashek, Dave Robidoux and Tom Hedden.

The company's use of KPM Musichouse (Now KPM Music) tracks also notably included Syd Dale; tracks include "Maelstrom" for the company's 1968 Minnesota Vikings season highlight reel and also the psychedelic-flavored jazz track "Artful Dodger" on the film recap of Super Bowl V, specifically during the montage which shows Johnny Unitas's 75-yard touchdown pass to John Mackey which was tipped in flight by Eddie Hinton and Mel Renfro before landing in the hands of Mackey.

With these techniques, NFL Films turns football games into events that mimic ballet, opera, and epic battles.

Among the company's most famous creation is the poem and accompanying music cue "The Autumn Wind", which have become official themes for the Las Vegas Raiders.

[8] NFL Films also has a dedicated channel on free over-the-top service Pluto TV that launched in August 2019.

In comparison, other sports that lacked the film resources that the NFL had to have archives missing up through the 1970s, with much of the time before that preserved only by Canadian television broadcasters.

The company has also done films for major college football programs, such as Colorado State University; the company's 1977 film on CSU's football program used John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" as well as an instrumental cover of The Beatles' song "Tell Me What You See", and noted alumni of the team who had gone on to NFL careers, such as Bill Larson of the Lions and Bill Kennedy of the Colts, Kevin McClain of the Rams, and Greg Stamrick of the Oilers.

[14] Sam Spence was long involved in a controversial situation with the NFL regarding the rights to perform or use his music in any media outlets.

[15] In an interview, Spence reported he was convinced to sign a contract that relinquished all of the rights to his music to NFL Films under the promise that the League would return the document to him.

Laurel facility and processed immediately so as to give the production team the maximum amount of time to produce its weekly shows.

Clients include feature length and short films shot on location in Philadelphia as well as students at local universities.