RIP Ed Sabol
NFL Films was Sports Center before ESPN was a concept. My buddies and I reenacted all the NFL highlights on the playground complete with battle music in the background. We all immitated John Facenda to narrate all this. He was the "Voice of God," reading lyrical descriptions in solemn tones.
Ed Sabol, the NFL Films founder who revolutionized sports broadcasting and reimagined pro football from an up-and-coming league to must-watch theater, has died. He was 98. Sabol was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. During his tenure at NFL Films from 1964 to 1995, the organization won 52 Emmy Awards.
"Through his determination and innovative spirit, Ed Sabol transformed how America watched football and all sports," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. Working with his son, Steve, Sabol introduced a series of innovations taken for granted today: super slow-motion replays, blooper reels, reverse angle shots. They stuck microphones on coaches and players, set highlights to pop music, and recorded pregame locker room speeches.
"We began making the game personal for the fans, like a Hollywood movie," Sabol told The Associated Press before his Hall of Fame induction. "Violent tackles, the long slow spiral of the ball, following alongside the players as they sidestepped and sprinted down the field. The movie camera was the perfect medium at the time to present the game the way the fans wanted to see it."
A star swimmer at Ohio State who had a brief stage career, Sabol served with the 4th Infantry Division as a rifleman during World War II. He was in the overcoat business with his father-in-law in Philadelphia when the self-described "amateur moviemaker" formed Blair Productions, a film company named after his daughter. His only experience producing sports was recording the action at Steve's high school football games.
Then he won the rights to chronicle the 1962 NFL championship for $3,000, changing the course of his film career and -- very possibly -- the league's fortunes. At his Hall of Fame enshrinement, Sabol, then 94, said from his wheelchair that he "dreamt the impossible dream, and I'm living it right at this minute." When Sabol founded NFL Films, his son was there working beside him as a cinematographer right from the start. The two were honored with the Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003.
Steve Sabol, who succeeded his father as NFL Films' president in 1985, died in 2012 at age 69 of brain cancer.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:19 PM ^
There was an incredible interview with both Ed and Steve (I think it was either for ESPN or HBO Real Sports) where they describe how they essentially invented the idea of slow-motion highlights, and how freaking difficult (and expensive) it was to implement it on NFL Films with the crazy expensive film stock they were using. They had to feed twice as much film into the camera, and hope like hell the play they were recording was worth using.
In the era of 22-camera angle replay, it's hard to see just how inventive and monumental Ed Sabol's work was. But he was the best at what he did, and we wouldn't have the kinds of sports coverage we have without NFL Films.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^
The use of slow-motion film backed by dramatic music to capture football action was genius.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:41 PM ^
My brothers and I used to reenact the the key plays in slow motion in the living room while humming the music. It was a blast. It had an impact back in the days when that highlight show accounted for half of all football you watched that week.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:14 AM ^
with John Facenda proclaiming your Godlike prowess with a miltary hymm humming in the background. It didn't get any better than that for a 10 year old boy! I think nowadays we would be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:23 PM ^
February 9th, 2015 at 11:27 PM ^
Way, way back in the day when I was boy NFL Films used to air a weekly program every Saturday around noon or so. We only got two games per week (one AFL and one NFL) and there were no highlights or internet so this was the only way you could see the games outside your viewing area.
And it was glorious. RIP Ed.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:42 PM ^
Talk about dated. Crazy to think of what was state of the art back then. And to think we put a man on the moon prior to that.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:01 AM ^
And to think we put a man on the moon with a spaceship with as much technology as a calculator watch.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:50 AM ^
The Red Wings on Channel 50 had their early 70's promo with similar graphics blasting to Emerson Lake Palmer's "Hoedown". We just thought that was so "futuristic". Sort of like Tang going to the Moon.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^
The Autumn Wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea,
With a rollocking song, he sweeps along,
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weather beaten.
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.
February 10th, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^
Dear Lord I miss those days of Raiders/Steelers wars. About then more of less was when football pulled ahead of baseball.
February 9th, 2015 at 11:46 PM ^
i think that song was played on every show. that and john facenda's voice. unforgetable.
February 10th, 2015 at 1:33 AM ^
February 10th, 2015 at 7:23 AM ^
unless it was a retrospective. NFL Films began as Blair Motion Pictures in 1962, and Baugh retired from the NFL a decade earlier in 1952.
February 10th, 2015 at 10:55 AM ^
WW2 veteran. Not many left. The greatest generation. I look up greatly to them.