RIP Steve Sabol

[NeverSurrender]

You and your dad changed my life, I know that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ear ... rss_sports

Steve Sabol, NFL Films president, dies of brain cancer
By Matt Brooks
NFL Films president Steve Sabol has died after an 18-month battle with brain cancer. He was 69.

Sabol took over the reins of the company in 1985 when his father, founder Ed Sabol, retired. Steve Sabol introduced his father at the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement only months after he was diagnosed with the cancer.

[cantstopthemusic]

NFL Films President Steve Sabol dies at 69

By RACHEL COHEN (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press


NEW YORK (AP) -- NFL Films President Steve Sabol, half of the father-son team that revolutionized sports broadcasting and mythologized pro football into the country's favorite sport, died Tuesday from brain cancer. He was 69.

In March 2011, Sabol was diagnosed with a tumor on the left side of his brain after being hospitalized for a seizure.

He started working with his father, Ed - NFL Films' founder - in 1964, and they introduced a series of innovations now taken for granted today, from slow-motion replays to sticking microphones on coaches and players.

''Steve Sabol was the creative genius behind the remarkable work of NFL Films,'' NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement from the league confirming Sabol's death. ''Steve's passion for football was matched by his incredible talent and energy. Steve's legacy will be part of the NFL forever. He was a major contributor to the success of the NFL, a man who changed the way we look at football and sports, and a great friend.''

Ed Sabol was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year. The two received the Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003.

''We see the game as art as much as sport,'' Steve Sabol told The Associated Press before his father's Hall induction. ''That helped us nurture not only the game's traditions but to develop its mythology: America's Team, The Catch, The Frozen Tundra.''

Sabol received 35 Emmys for writing, cinematography, editing, directing and producing. No one else had ever earned that many Emmys in as many different categories.

He began his career as a cinematographer under his father. He was the perfect fit for the job: an all-Rocky Mountain Conference running back at Colorado College majoring in art history.

The Sabols treated sport as film and changed the way Americans watched and perceived games. Their advances included everything from reverse angle replays to setting highlights to pop music.

''Today of course those techniques are so common it's hard to imagine just how radical they once were,'' the younger Sabol told the AP last year. ''Believe me, it wasn't always easy getting people to accept them, but I think it was worth the effort.''

An accomplished collage artist, Sabol exhibited at the ArtExpo in New York, the Avant Gallery in Miami, the Govinda Gallery in Washington, the Milan Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Garth Davidson Gallery in Moorestown, N.J.

It was Steve's high school football games in Philadelphia that gave Ed his only experience filming sports before he won the rights to chronicle the 1962 NFL championship game.

[TawnyVonJagger]

Very sad news. Sabol was incredible. RIP.

[WOLF]

RIP - his work was iconic in every way; like Mel Allen with TWIB, it just won't be the same without him working on it.

[poizond13]

His impact on the league was huge. I along with so many others learned a lot about the NFL from watching his shows as a kid. In many ways, he introduced me to what football is. It's definitely a sad day.

[Crazy Levi]

His impact on the league was huge. I learned a lot about the NFL from watching his shows as a kid.

That statement has to have Sabol rolling in his grave. Not exactly an endorsement of his work.

[poizond13]

His impact on the league was huge. I learned a lot about the NFL from watching his shows as a kid.

That statement has to have Sabol rolling in his grave. Not exactly an endorsement of his work.

Oh, really? So you're going to turn a thread honoring an NFL legend into another one of your trolling attempts? Sad. Pathetic. But certainly not unexpected, coming from you.

[NeverSurrender]

Steve Sabol would've hated p13.

Thank God he never read Sludge.

[poizond13]

Steve Sabol would've hated p13.

Thank God he never read Sludge.

I doubt that. Most NFL people in general hate people who make excuses, so you surely would have been disliked by him.

[NeverSurrender]

Tom Landry liked me.

Of course i never trolled a heavy metal message board.

[ParaDime77]

Do the Sabol's own all of the NFL Films footage or does the league have their hand in it? That sumbitch has to be worth a mega fortune. All I can hear in my head is the legendary John Placienda (sp?) saying, "The autumn wind is a Raider", such amazing work!

[cantstopthemusic]

Most NFL people in general hate people who welch on bets, so I surely would have been disliked by him.

MARK MY WORDS!

[Space Bear]

They're showing a bunch of classic clips during SportsCenter as I type this..."WHAT THE HELL'S GOIN' ON OUT HERE???"

Hard to imagine the NFL without NFL Films. Thanks for the memories, Steve.

[Crazy Levi]

You know what's weird?

Actual video clips of stuff we are used to seeing in NFL Film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xMDIcsUMmA