During the 1980s and early 1990s he became the first pre-game pro football analyst and a frequent guest on the nascent ESPN and the networks. He also helped create what became NFL Films. In 1962 Sherman's friend and Giants fan Ed Sabol asked Sherman and Mara for exclusive rights to film game and off-field footage. Sabol would rush the film reels out of Yankee Stadium in team laundry baskets, spend all night developing them, and create special content for network sports shows. This enterprise evolved into NFL Films, eventually under Sabol's son Steve, with its large NFL catalogue and unique programming. In 1985 Sabol and Sherman co-created and produced a new type of show, "Monday Night Matchup", shown on ESPN just before ABC's national Monday Night game, where Sherman and co-hosts, such as Ron "Jaws" Jaworski, would break down the teams into key match-ups and use stop-action film and graphics to analyze the upcoming game. This format later became a standard feature in ESPN's and the networks’ sports programming.