Ed Cubberly had never heard of Anthony Hopkins when he received a phone call from Kathleen Gerlach, the assistant costume designer on a movie he knew nothing about. It was 1989, and the film version of “The Silence of the Lambs” was two years from becoming a critical and commercial sensation.

Cubberly, a full-time nurse at the time, living in Bayonne, New Jersey, had a side business making masks for NHL goalies from 1988 to 2000. Mike Richter, Frank Pietrangelo and Mark Fitzpatrick were among the players who wore his products.

So how did he get drawn in to help create one of film’s all-time villains?

At one point in the late 1980s, Cubberly left a business card at Gerry Cosby & Co. Sporting Goods in Manhattan. Not long after, members of the “The Silence of the Lambs” prop department went to the shop looking for a mask. They walked away with Cubberly’s contact information.

Gerlach reached out to Cubberly about making a mask — not for hockey but for what would become a classic scene in the movie. And thus began Cubberly’s lone foray into film and his connection to Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, whom the American Film Institute ranks as the No. 1 movie villain of all time.

“My 15 minutes of fame,” Cubberly says now. “I guess it turned out OK.”

Midway through “Silence of the Lambs,” Lecter speaks to a senator while strapped to a gurney. He is a serial killer notorious for eating his victims, but he’s also a brilliant psychiatrist with information that could help catch another serial killer, Buffalo Bill. As he speaks to the senator, whose daughter has been kidnapped by Buffalo Bill, he wears a straight jacket and a fiberglass mask that covers his nose and the lower half of his face.

There’s an opening over his mouth covered by three metal bars — a measure against a potential cannibalistic outburst.

That was Cubberly’s finished product: the most famous mask he ever made, with all due respect to the Statue of Liberty mask that New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter wore in the 1994 Stanley Cup Final.

“It was kind of devious and scary looking,” says Cubberly, now 67. “It fit the scene perfectly.”

When enlisting Cubberly’s help, Gerlach gave him a description of the scene. Cubberly came up with the concept in only a few minutes, using a Sharpie to draw the design on a picture of one of his old masks. He interpreted Gerlach’s instructions as instructions to give Lecter a muzzle, which led to the mouth covering. He also added a pair of holes over the nostrils.

Cubberly was in contact with Gerlach and future Academy Award-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood throughout the process. At one point, they asked what he was thinking for the mask’s color. Cubberly suggested keeping the fiberglass’s greenish-tan shade. It would look like something that could have been made in jail, he told them. Director Jonathan Demme loved the idea, Cubberly recalls.

“I was just trying to get out of painting the thing,” he says with a chuckle.

Cubberly never met Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his performance. The film’s prop crew mailed him a plaster mold of the actor’s face, which he still has. Cubberly sculpted clay over the mold, then built the fiberglass mask over the clay. The process took only a couple of days.

The costume department had Hopkins try out different types of masks before filming. One looked like a beekeeper’s mask. Others were more cage-like. Cubberly’s design proved most effective.

“It looked nothing like any of the other masks,” he says.

The scene is similarly unique — and tense. Dramatic string music plays as Lecter is wheeled forward, and Hopkins makes piercing eye contact with the senator as he toys with her throughout the conversation.

Cubberly doesn’t watch many movies, but he and his wife went to “The Silence of the Lambs” when it came out in theaters. He didn’t know exactly when his mask would make an appearance. The second it did, he jumped from his seat and let out a cheer.

The other patrons hissed at him to sit down.

“I made that mask for the movie!” he told them.

No one in the theater believed him. Why would they think the mask came from New Jersey?

Cubberly, who now lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey, received $400 in payment for the mask. He also maintains copyright over the design. That’s gotten him some extra cash over the years. He’s signed contracts with Halloween costume companies allowing them to reproduce the mask.

Billy Crystal wore the original while hosting the Oscars in 1992, making a joke that he looked like the goalie from the Screen Actors Guild hockey team.

Cubberly hasn’t seen the original in person since he shipped it from New Jersey to Pittsburgh, where most of the movie was filmed.

“It’s a question I get all the time,” he says. “I have no idea where it is.”

He does, however, have a gift from the man who wore it. After making the mask, he asked the film’s prop crew if he could get something signed by Hopkins. They granted the request, mailing him a photo of Hopkins wearing the mask. He keeps the photo framed on his wall.

“To Eddie,” Hopkins scrawled at the bottom of the picture, “All good wishes — and be very careful on dark nights, Eddie, because I’ll be waiting and watching.”

Hopkins signed the picture twice: once with his own name and once with the name of the character Cubberly helped give his iconic look: Dr. Lecter.

(Top photo: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images)

The death of the long ball has been frequently pronounced as football has evolved in the past few years.

Playing out from the back has become the standard. Direct teams are the anomaly rather than the norm.

The logical tactical evolution after that was the rise of the high press, followed by attempts to deliberately lure the press to exploit spaces in behind those opposition players doing the pressing.

During that time, teams have been playing shorter passes from the back. Goalkeepers are no longer habitually launching long balls as far up the pitch as they can. Instead, they play a key role in their team’s build-up phase, a trend best illustrated by the decline of the long ball in Europe’s top leagues, especially the Premier League.

Goalkeepers in England’s top flight have been playing fewer long balls. Since the start of the 2018-19 Premier League season, the percentage of goalkeeper passes played long — defined as balls that travel at least 32m (35 yards) — has been decreasing year on year, dropping from 69 per cent to under half in that six-year period.

The move towards playing shorter passes means ’keepers have increasingly been required to possess a different skill set. Technical ability on the ball has become a necessity, leading to a focus on developing goalkeepers who are good with their feet under pressure.

This increased technical quality of goalkeepers, and the rise of aggressive pressing, have led to teams maximising long passes to exploit spaces upfield.

“When you play teams against man to man, the man free is the ‘keeper,” said Pep Guardiola after his Manchester City side’s 3-0 away win against Burnley at the start of last season. “That’s why you have to use this alternative.”

In the second half of that game, City exploited Burnley’s man-marking by isolating striker Erling Haaland and using goalkeeper Ederson to play long passes to him. Ederson completed 16 of his 28 long passes at Turf Moor that night — his highest Premier League tally since 2018-19 — and one of those led to the free kick through which City scored their third goal.

Similarly, visitors Brentford tried to press City man-to-man in their Premier League match last month. Again, the City players dropped deeper to drag Brentford defenders out of position, creating space for Haaland to attack and for Ederson to send long passes into.

In this example, Jack Grealish and Savinho retreat to move their markers forward, Sepp van den Berg and Nathan Collins, and isolate Haaland against Ethan Pinnock.

Once the City players attract Brentford’s defenders higher up the pitch, Ederson plays a long ball towards Haaland, who beats Pinnock to score the winner.

“When you isolate Haaland against a central defender, with the quality that we have with Ederson and (backup goalkeeper) Stefan Ortega, it’s a weapon that we have to exploit,” said Guardiola after City’s 2-1 victory that day.

This season has been the third in a row in which City have used Ederson’s long balls towards Haaland to beat man-to-man pressing schemes. Considering the qualities and profiles of the two players, it’s a golden solution.

On the other side of Manchester, Guardiola’s United counterpart Erik ten Hag was never lucky enough to see Andre Onana’s long balls towards Diogo Dalot result in a goal.

Since the beginning of last season, ’keeper Onana has been trying to find Dalot’s runs behind the defence, whether the Portuguese full-back was starting from a narrow infield position or a wider one.

The idea is to wait until Dalot has curved his run beyond the opposition back line before the goalkeeper plays the long ball into space with the other United players vacating that area.

In the 2-1 home win against Brentford this month, Dalot snuck behind Kevin Schade — after Marcus Rashford’s narrow positioning dragged Kristoffer Ajer infield — to attack the space beyond the defence.

Onana perfectly times his long pass, with Dalot still onside…

… but the full-back shoots straight at Mark Flekken.

Liverpool have also been using their goalkeepers’ long-range distribution to execute a specific move.

Alisson and his backup Caoimhin Kelleher have been playing long balls to Mohamed Salah to start an up-back-through passing pattern down their right wing.

Liverpool’s third goal in a 4-1 win against Sevilla in pre-season is an example of how the move works: Alisson goes direct towards Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai makes a third-man run into the space the Egyptian winger has vacated, even before the latter gets the ball back to Diogo Jota, who then finds the Hungarian midfielder’s run.

Salah has received 42 per cent of Liverpool goalkeepers’ completed long passes in the Premier League this season, a stark increase compared to the previous six campaigns. New head coach Arne Slot is turning him into a direct outlet.

It’s important to remember that this is not just a case of goalkeepers launching their kicks forward with no purpose. The idea is to have a specific routine that maximises your chance of scoring a goal.

Arsenal’s David Raya has played 56 per cent of his passes long in the Premier League so far this season — only Nottingham Forest, Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ goalkeepers have gone direct more frequently. But Arsenal aren’t just lumping the ball forward for the sake of it. Raya’s long passes are mainly targeted towards Kai Havertz near the right touchline, with the other Arsenal players in position to try to then win the second ball.

Since Raya and Havertz joined Arsenal in summer 2023, the Germany forward has received as many of the Spain goalkeeper’s completed long passes as the rest of the team combined in the Premier League (102 of 204). The next highest receivers on the list are Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli, with just 17 each.

Football’s evolution in recent years has turned goalkeepers’ long balls into a tool to attack space and progress up the pitch.

More emphasis on build-up play has favoured technically sound ‘keepers, while also leading to the rise of aggressive pressing and higher defensive lines. Goalkeepers can target specific areas and team-mates to bypass that press and attack the space it inevitably creates.

Numerically, long balls played by ’keepers are in decline but tactically, they are more important than ever.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Manchester United have reached an agreement with Sporting Lisbon over the hire of Ruben Amorim as head coach.

As part of the deal Amorim is set to stay with Sporting for their next three games, including against Manchester City on Tuesday and Braga on November 10, meaning he would first take charge of United away at Ipswich Town on November 24.

Sporting were determined to keep hold of Amorim for this crucial period and United have accepted those terms in recognition of the 39-year-old’s standing at the Portuguese club and his desire for a smooth exit mid-campaign.

Amorim has a €10million (£8.4m, $10.9m) release clause in his contract, but there is also a 30-day notice period. United are willing to pay €1m extra to get Amorim earlier, so he can start work during the international break. Sporting had been demanding an additional €5m for an immediate release, according to people familiar with the deal in Portugal.

Sporting insist everything is not yet finalised and there have also been conversations around further compensation to allow the departures of the staff Amorim has earmarked to join him, namely first-team coaches Emanuel Ferro, Adelio Candido, and Carlos Fernandes, as well as goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital and sports scientist Paulo Barreira. United chief executive Omar Berrada has been in Lisbon leading the talks for United.

Amorim wants a satisfactory departure from a club he has called home for four years, conscious of the bond established with supporters in two league title wins, and United were open to such diplomacy given the season is underway and Ruud van Nistelrooy is capable of stepping up as interim manager.

Speaking ahead of Sporting’s game with Estrela Amadora on Friday night, Amorim refused to expand on when an announcement would be made.

“It’s a negotiation between two clubs. It’s never easy. Even with the clauses, it’s never easy. They have to talk,” he told reporters.

“We will have clarification after the game. It will be very clear so it’s one more day after the game tomorrow we will have the decision made.”

He did not watch United’s win over Leicester City on Wednesday night, focusing instead on Estrela while also monitoring Manchester City, who Sporting take on in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Asked what he liked about the Premier League in general, he added: “Everything.”

Van Nistelrooy would, in this timeframe, have a total of four games in charge adding in Chelsea in the Premier League, PAOK in the Europa League, and Leicester again in the Premier League.

The Dutchman’s long-term future at the club is not yet certain. He has said he is willing to work in any capacity Amorim sees fit. A week as United boss is at least an opportunity to enhance his CV as a No 1.

The pursuit of Amorim follows the decision to relieve Erik ten Hag of his duties as manager on Monday after two and a half years in charge.

What will Amorim bring to United?

Analysis by senior data analyst Mark Carey

Ruben Amorim is a manager that has been linked with his fair share of jobs in recent months, and you can understand why the 39-year-old is in demand.

Amorim guided Sporting to a first league title for 19 years in 2021-22, followed it up with another victory last season, and has nine wins from nine with Sporting sitting pretty at the top of the Primeira Liga this season.

Even accounting for the quality imbalance of the Primeira Liga, a side who boasted, statistically, one of the best attacks (Chance creation, 95 out 99) and the best defences (Chance prevention, 97 out of 99) shows that their manager must be having a positive effect.

Stylistically, Amorim’s 3-4-3 — or more specifically, a 3-4-2-1 — is built on high possession, flexible attacking approaches and a strong defensive foundation.

Last season’s arrival of striker Viktor Gyokeres led to a more transitional, direct style of attack (Patient attack, 49 out of 99). It also highlights Amorim’s ability to maximise his style by adapting to the skill sets of his players.

Amorim has shown his desire to bring young talent into the first team — including Goncalo Inacio, Matheus Nunes, Nuno Mendes and Ousmane Diomande — and has improved the team’s quality with the resources at his disposal.

Bruno Fernandes moved to Manchester United a little over a month before Amorim’s appointment, but Mendes (to Paris Saint-Germain), Nunes (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Pedro Porro (Tottenham Hotspur), Manuel Ugarte (also to PSG) and Joao Palhinha (Fulham) are among the talented players whom Amorim has improved before being sold for high fees.

Title-winning credentials? Tick. Fielding young players? Tick. Improving individual player performance? Tick. There are reasons why Amorim has been so highly sought-after among Europe’s elite.

(Top photo: Diogo Cardoso/Getty Images)