The football world says goodbye to a legend of the sport on Tuesday September 18, 2012.
Steve Sabol, president of
NFL Films, has died at the age of 69 after an 18-month battle with brain cancer.
Sabol took over the mantle as president of
NFL Films in 1985 from his father Ed, who founded the company. Steve learned in March of 2011 that he had a brain tumor that could not be removed. He introduced his father during Ed's emotional enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August 2011.
Steve Sabol won over 40 Emmy awards and oversaw 107 Emmys for NFL Films. He was the
Sporting News' 2002 "Sports Executive of the Year. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. The company broke ground as the first to wire players and coaches for sound. It revolutionized how music was used with sports films. It was the first to use ground-level slow motion and montage editing in sports. So much of what we see in sports television came directly from the Sabols. He straddled the line between artist and executive.Generations of NFL fans learned to love the game of football through the lens of Ed and Steve Sabol. Steve started out as a cameraman for the company before eventually running it.
"My dad has a great expression," Sabol said when his father's induction was announced. "Tell me a fact, and I'll learn. Tell me a truth, and I'll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever. And now my Dad's story will be in Canton and hopefully that will live forever too."
I didn't know Steve personally, but I feel as if I do. I grew up watching
"NFL Films Presents" film montages whenever I could find them. And even the lamest of the lame has at least heard the booming voice of
John Facenda as he read,
"From the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field". They may not have known about John Facenda, or the definition of "Tundra", (I most definitely had NO idea what my mans was talkin about!!) but one thing that I do know is that NFL Films made me a dedicated fan of the sport that I now love.
As I was coming of age in the 80's, HBO aired a weekly sports series called
"Inside The NFL". The core hosts of the show were
Nick Buoniconti and
Len Dawson. I can recall that every week I would yell at the TV screen for them to get done yammering about stats that I was already aware of, and get to running the highlights.....courtesy of Ed & Steve Sabol of NFL Films. Narrator John Facenda's voice on the highlight reels was before me in the 60's, but the narrator that I grew to rely on in the 80's was
Harry Kalas. It was the PERFECT combination of shot selection, slow motion, and sound effects......courtesy of Ed & Steve Sabol of NFL Films. This is the way that I REALLY got to see and HEAR what was happening on the sidelines of the Sunday games. The Sunday night footage of what happened in all of the games, were short 10 second clips that wouldn't tell me too much of anything.
"George Michaels Sports Machine" was the cream of the crop for network TV sports highlights, but nothing compared with actually HEARING Mike Ditka getting bleeped on the Soldier Field sidelines during a 4 minute segment on Inside The NFL.....courtesy of Ed & Steve Sabol of NFL Films.
The story of the NFL can't be told without Steve Sabol. May he rest in peace.
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