Posted on 09/18/2012 11:04:17 AM PDT by mc5cents
NFL Films president Steve Sabol died Tuesday morning after an 18-month battle with brain cancer. He was 69.
Sabol was one of the driving forces behind NFL Films -- which has allowed fans to see a different side of football for the past 50 years. His father, Ed Sabol, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, started the company and convinced the league to let him film the 1962 NFL title game. Eventually, Sabol, with help from Steve, started NFL Films, and the league was never the same.
Everything you see on Inside the NFL? NFL Films. Much of what you see on the NFL Network and NFL.com? NFL Films. The wonderful documentaries on football? NFL Films.
Steve started with the company as a cinematographer in 1964, and from there, he began building the company of which he'd eventually become president.
NFL Films has won more than 100 Emmys, and Sabol has won 35 of them individually (for writing, cinematography, editing directing and producing. Nobody else has ever won for so many different categories.
"But it wasn't hardware that Steve loved, it was the game," wrote NFL Films in its Sabol obituary. "And he saw it as no one ever had. Through the eyes of an artist. With an unerring eye for detail, and a pitch perfect ear, Steve quickly transformed NFL Films from simple chroniclers of the game, to epic myth makers. And he did it, as all great artists do, by taking chances."
Growing up in Philly, I can still hear Facenda's voice on the news broadcast...
I think you are right about that.
Harry Kalas, followed Facenda as NFL Films primary voice
I think all of the narrators, including Facenda and Kalas, were from Philly.
He will be missed may he rest in peace. He set the standard for NFL films.
Considering there is no tundra anywhere in the state of Wisconsin, I'd say Facenda did a marvelous job.
Facenda never said that, it was derived from dumbass Berman, doing it in a Facenda tone of voice.
Over 100 Emmy awards. What a career!
RIP Mr. Sabol. Heck of a run Sir! You will be missed!
Facenda may have never actually said it, but it still is associated with Facenda’s style. And by the way, Chris Berman is not a dumass.
The visionaries that built this mighty league are almost all gone now.
But he didn’t build that.
Obama did.
/Feeling the Mr. Crankypants Junior today
Seriously Mr. Sabol, rest in peace, and I pray you were fortunate enough to hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant”.
Those were great films. And in many ways the music he chose became the soundtrack for our lives.
Very sad news. RIP.
Steve’s father Ed is still alive. He just turned 96.
Not a Raiders fan, but my favorite from NFL films was “The Autumn Wind”, a poem actually written by Sabol (RIP), and fittingly narrated by the fabulous Facenda:
The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He’ll knock you ‘round and upside down
And laugh when he’s conquered and won.
The entire style we know as NFL films (and I think the narration was Sabol.
The whole slo-mo choreographed to music (with the classic symbol hit to correspond to hits on the field) was his idea.
A brilliant visionary who helped make the NFL what it is today.
RIP — gone too young.
I used to watch Monday Night Football only to see the summaries of the games that he did (back in the Seventies)
Thank you, Mr. Sabol. May you forever recover that giant key fumble in the sky...:)
Great stuff.
My absolute all time favorite was “The Lineman”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yprqSr1-v3o&playnext=1&list=PL28B5A855C8F3386B&feature=results_main
That epitomized football for me.
Now when most people hear that, they think of “Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy”.
I don’t know the name of this one, but it was another of my favorites...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyIHELHwq6I&feature=related
Oh, Good God.
I had no idea what that was, and had to Google it.
I haven’t watched any real television for going on 15 years now (outside of NFL) so I had no idea.
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