If you grew up as an NFL football fan, you’ve most likely seen some of the great work of NFL Films. The game and our country lost a very successful and creative person yesterday when Steve Sabol passed away at age 69.
Sabol and his dad, Ed Sabol, were the driving force behind the NFL Films empire. Ed pitched the concept to, then, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and sold him on the idea. Father and son worked together to bring the concept to fruition, first shooting the 1962 NFL Championship Game and then building an empire from the ground up.
For kids growing up when I did, there was no ESPN Sportscenter. There was no NFL Network. If you didn’t get a particular game on your local tv stations that particular week, it is quite likely that the only clips you saw from that game were the ones done – on film – by NFL Films. A real highlight of each week’s Monday Night Football broadcast was the ‘halftime highlights’ – brought to you by NFL Films (and introduced by Howard Cosell).
And, likewise, they also produced many of the half-hour or hour-long features that you’ve seen over the years, highlighting some of the all-time classic NFL games:
- “Ghost to the Post”
- “Ice Bowl”
- “The Catch”
All of those classic NFL games – and more - were featured on NFL Films. Some are set to great music and the immortal narration of John Facenda, aka “The Voice of God,” who provided vocals until his death in 1984.There was something special about the way he said the words “The Oakland Raiders.”
Others feature the actual play by play soundtrack. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard Jack Buck proclaim the fumble recovery that sealed ‘The Catch’ win over Dallas in the 1981 NFC Championship Game was recovered by “San-Fran-Cis-Co!”
(NOTE - the only clip I could find online featured the original CBS play-by-play with Vin Scully. That’s really good, too!).
All the Super Bowl highlights you’ve seen – from Super Bowl I to XLVI…were brought to you by NFL Films, too:
- That great shot of Lynn Swann that was depicted on the cover of Sports Illustrated after Super Bowl X. You’ve probably seen the footage of that catch.
- Or the interception return of Willie Brown in Super Bowl XI (where he’s running right into the camera).
- Or the various wins of the New England Patriots in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX that came down to the wire
- Or, yes, even the Titans heartbreaking loss in Super Bowl XXXIV (where they came up one yard short).
All of the action was captured by NFL Films. You might recognize Sabol as the man who introduced each Super Bowl documentary at the beginning – and summarized it at the end. He took great care to put the game into some sort of context. He’d often refer to pop culture references from the time or spotlight some of the great players and coaches who contributed to a particular victory.
News surfaced last year that Sabol was battling brain cancer. And then yesterday came the sad news of his passing. I couldn’t help but think back to the hundreds of hours he entertained me with his outstanding work. One of my favorite gifts, recently, was the DVD compilation of all NFL Super Bowl documentaries. I will make a point to watch a few of them soon and enjoy them once again.
He and his father did a great job of entertaining millions of us while documenting this great game which has become America’s most popular sport. NFL Films is now as much a part of the game as coin tosses and zone defenses thanks to this great father and son team.
JG
(Source: The New York Times)
Originally posted 9/19/2012
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