Steve Sabol and his influence

This post was planned to be on the minor league shakeup,but something more important shoves this to a later post.
Steve Sabol of NFL Films has passed away due to brain cancer at the age of 69.
Steve Sabol and his father Ed might have had more to do with the popularity of the NFL than anyone else and I do not think that is a bit of hyperbole either.

NFL Films and their weekly TV shows in the 1970's brought highlights from other games that fans could not see and put them to music that added passion to the film.
NFL Films and the Sabols were not just making highlights available, they were making mini-movies for 23 minutes and using a football game from the week before as the plot of the film.
Combine the filmmaking skills with the music of Sam Spence adding drama and excitement to the film, NFL Films brought the excitement of the league to more than just cities that had teams in the league and made fans out of non-fans.



NFL Films was the innovator as they did things that are commonplace today, but were revolutionary then.
Recall all those classic slow-motion shots of the football spinning through its spiral as the camera followed the ball against the backdrop of the stadium and then suddenly a pair of hands appear to snatch the ball out of the air?
Those frames go to the credit of NFL Films for being progressive enough to realize that to make a niche', they needed to do things differently than standard highlight films of the era and by not just thinking outside the box, but not even in the same continent, they changed not just sports films,they changed how fans watched and cared about the game.


Ed and Steve Sabol marketed the NFL in such a way that cannot be appreciated by anyone that grew up later than the 1970's through their magic and in my opinion, did more for the game than any commissioner,coach or players has done to take the game to the massive audience that now is part of the giant that is the National Football League.
Take away the NFL Game of the Week and This Week in Pro Football from its time and fans would barely see the other teams in the league.
If there is was no NFL Films, the Monday Night highlights that were such a staple for all of us old-timers in the 70's (narrated by Howard Cosell) do not exist.
I remember so vividly as a child, begging to stay up until halftime on a school night to be able to see those clips and Cosell's nasally voice (But THERE goes little Joe Washington down the sideline!) voicing over the games from the day before that had seldom been aired.




I also wager that there is a lot of people between 40 and 50 that can look back and remember running the ball in playground football games with the music of NFL Films running through their heads as they played.
As much as I love seeing all my teams today, there is a small part that misses those times because they just seemed so special because they were not commonplace and part of the everyday routine as it can be currently...

Ed Sabol was far overdue for his induction for the Hall of Fame and Steve Sabol deserves a bust in Canton as well for his contributions to professional football.
Here is hoping that Steve Sabol gets his recognition during the next class of inductees.
He certainly deserves it...