Steve Sabol was a football guy. And among football guys, there is no higher compliment.
Sabol passed away after a courageous 18-month battle with brain cancer. He fought the fight the best he could and then it ended, but his influence on pro football will never end.
Who in America has not been influenced by the films produced by NFL Films over the past seven decades? Virtually every football fan in America has seen these films over and over, and they all look just as good all the time.
NFL Films invented the steady cam, the slow motion shot of the football in spiral coming toward you, was the first to go inside the locker room, right here in Denver with Lou Saban’s Broncos in 1968.
Bronco fans — you know the shot of Lou Saban on the sideline, commenting to his offensive line coach and dear friend Whitey Dovell, “They’re KILLING me, Whitey, they’re killing me…”
That was Steve’s crew, and Steve’s idea.
How about all those wirings of all those players? You have seen them, and they have grown the game and made it so loved and in fact, so valuable.
Remember the great hit by Steve Atwater on Kansas City’s Christian Okoye in that Monday night game? My lifelong friend Bob Smith, who has 27 individual Emmys for NFL Films (yes, that figure is correct) and I had to convince Steve to wear the wire. And Broncos visual history would not be the same without it.
But Steve Sabol was the father of the wire, and Bob Smith was the attending physician at its birth.
We were always happy to go along.
Remember head coach Mike Shanahan being wired for seven straight playoff games, all victories, on our way to back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1997 and 1998? He was the first coach to go along with that for that many straight playoff games (and wins, which did not hurt the streak), I was the first PR guy to get his coach to concede to it. One guy did all the wires, Bob Smith, for one organization, NFL Films, and one guy had the foresight to push forward and ask, prod, cajole the teams, the owners, the coaches— Steve Sabol.
The first guy I called when I got the news was former/retired Broncos General Manager John Beake, and we shared some moans and wails. John used to come with me every year when I went back to Films to review the Broncos annual highlight film — I worked with Bob on scripts and content, and John just wanted to make sure we did not accidentally feature players whose futures were tenuous.
But the night before, John and Steve and Bob and I would go to Bookbinder’s, the legendary Philadelphia restaurant, and share football stories over food and drink — but more football stories than anything.
John earned his early coaching spurs when he and Joe Paterno were grad assistants together, and Steve learned the game — and how to hustle owners and coaches for “the best shot” at the knee of his father, Ed, who most deservedly is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Those were great nights, is all I can say. Too many stories to relate, an entire book spewn out at the dinner table.
But it was all football, all the time, for Steve Sabol.
Most people do not know this, but Steve had perhaps the best individual collection of historic pro and college football magazine covers in America. But Steve did not have them locked up in an attic somewhere — they were framed and on display, still to this day, on the walls of NFL Films headquarters. He created a genuine museum on the walls of NFL Films, and he possessed so many framed objects that he would at times rotate them to give some exposure to all.
The cafeteria of the previous NFL Films building had a corner homage to “The King” — a corner table framed by a huge photo of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll and a favorite of Steve’s, on one wall, and on the opposite was a huge action picture of “the King,” halfback Hugh McElhenny. His nickname was The King, and I will leave it to the reader to check him out.
But he was The King, and every football guy who loved the game back in the day knew it.
How fitting that there was someone like Steve Sabol to pay proper tribute.
Sabol had some Colorado roots, as few know.
He came out here to go to Colorado College, where he was a backup, backup running back. He had Big Ed’s sense of flair and theatrical, and to try to make himself seem tougher and thus move up on the depth chart, Steve for awhile tried to list himself as coming from Possum Trot, Miss., (which he made up—the birthplace, not the town), figuring that birthplace made him seem tougher to all.
After college Steve joined his dad Ed in the family business, working as a cinematographer for his dad at Films starting in 1964.
Sabol has been honored so many ways, so many times, with so many awards, that I will leave it to the reader to check those figures out elsewhere.
But no single family not named Halas or Mara or Rooney ever had as great an influence on the great game of pro football as did the Sabols.
Steve Sabol was a football guy.
Rest in Peace, Steve.
Football flags fly half way up today, from the biggest city to Possum Trot, and in the heart of every fan.
Tags: Jim Saccomano, NFL Films, Steve Sabol
Once again, my condolences to Steve Sabol and all his love ones.
Wow, what history the Sabol’s had in the NFL. Awesome stuff!
thank you for running that piece!
I can tell that our beloved Broncos are indeed one of the *Fathers* in growing all facets of media awareness
I see he made a lot of contributions. Alwasy sad to see someone go but it comes for us all. RIP
Now to touch on the broncos,
Lets be real,
1. This was on Peyton. I know it , you know it, and most importantly he knows it. He sucked early and we were out of it before we were in it.
2. His arm isnt all there. He ofther threw in alot of areas where there were red jerseys and one white. (some credit goes to atls defense)
3. Oline got worked. Luckily we found a running formula that worked. PM was audibling well.
4. We didn’t start to rush the QB till late.
On the bright side,
1. only week 2. New playbook, new chemistry. We will get there.
2. D played tough. For once i was looking forward to the D more than the O in the offseason.
If it wasn’t for them, after 4 consecutive turnovers and a 3 and out … we should have lost by way more
3.This team can only get better. The D and the O as a unit. Bay Bay is showing us somethign if he stays healthy.
4.Hope this curbed the craze … i was tired of hearing all this superbowl talk. One game at a time. I personally like realistic expectations and then getting more than i bargained for than the other way around.
On to the next one. Houston is good, thier run game is our run game of old from OC to OL coach. Luckily our Run D has stepped up. Go Broncos.
ps: we are wasting PRs with leonard back there.
Later days,
TRB out …
My condolences go out as well to the Sabol family and all his friends. Huge loss. RIP Steve
Our pass rush did a good job. You cant look at just sacks and QB hits. Why? Because 80% of the Falcons passes were thrown within 2-3 seconds of the snap. And our pass rush was still near Ryan when he released it. When he held it longer we either got hands on him and couldnt bring him down (Which we need to work on) or hit him right after the throw. What we have to work on is our quick pass coverage. If we can stop them from releasing the ball in 2-3 seconds we have a much better chance of getting a sack. These last two weeks we have sucked at keeping or pass coverage tight on the quick passes so a WR cant get open so the QB can hit them.
Multiple times when Ryan held the ball longer we got hands on him and couldnt bring him down and he was able to get rid of the ball or run.
What also didnt help our pass rush is that the Falcons were allowed to hold Von on almost every play
My condolences to the Sabol family. The NFL family will surely miss him.
Maaan that was one heckuva game!!!….our Broncos never gave up.. Love this team!!!!
I have no doubt Manning wont repeat that first quarter in for the rest of the season…. no offense to these replacement refs, but I miss the regular refs… a lot of iffy calls, holdings uncalled….but still im not going to take anything away from Atlanta’s play, they capitalized on our mistakes.. If Manning had a better first quarter Atlanta would be no match…. would’ve been great for Bailey to have that win since he said it could be his last homecoming game…..
Our D is still awesome holding an offensive juggernaut to that much,, Next game should be a challenge as well. Still a dangerous defense w/o Mario and Demeco. Offensively Schaub, Johnson, and Foster….
New blog.
Houston is only allowing 8 points a game in the first 2 weeks. The Broncos have their work cut out for them this coming weekend.