Comments on: The Autumn wind is pirate

The Autumn wind is pirate

nathancaswell — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:16:02 -0800

Filmmaker, football ambassador, part-time poet, creator of a music video genre and NFL films president Steve Sabol has passed away at the age of 69. The winner of 40 Emmys, Sabol made arguably the single biggest impact on the mythology of American football, completely changing the way the sport was covered and photographed.

By: China Grover

China Grover — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:18:28 -0800

By: drezdn

drezdn — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:20:32 -0800

By: Madamina

Madamina — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:20:51 -0800

By: inturnaround

inturnaround — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:29:34 -0800

He's survived by his father Ed, the founder of NFL Films. It's a shame that Steve didn't live long enough to join his father in the Hall of Fame. .

By: cell divide

cell divide — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:30:27 -0800

I enjoy watching the NFL films stuff more than watching the actual games. .

By: hal9k

hal9k — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:37:56 -0800

For the remainder of the day and in Steve's honor, I'm going to bank around the office cubicles in slooooooow motion, tackling coworkers and narrating my moves in a really deep voice. .

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:38:11 -0800

NFL Films: Remembering Steve. Love watching these films. Steve's film making coupled with John Facenda's "voice of god" made these must watch films for me growing up. My friends and I tried to imitate the slow motion cameras and the voice in our own super 8 films. Last year's Super Bowl film when he catches Belichick telling his defense to worry about Cruz and Nicks right before Mannigham caught, arguably, one of the greatest Super Bowl catches (and throws) of all time is priceless. .

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:43:25 -0800

Fortunately, Journey wasn't the only band whose video work was inspired by NFL Films. .

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:46:56 -0800

JohnnyGunn's "Remembering Steve" link is a must watch, especially if you aren't familiar with Sabol's impact on the game.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:47:24 -0800

I enjoy watching the NFL films stuff more than watching the actual games. This+++ Laughably, that NFL Films style has been adopted by NASCAR for one of the race-recap shows on Speed. It's actually sadly-hilarious seeing that great heroic style being turned on sedans sideswiping each other and guys changing tires.

By: grubi

grubi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:52:32 -0800

. And thank you, Steve (and Ed!) for giving the world something I can bond with my father over.

By: eriko

eriko — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:02:36 -0800

They should bury his ashes in the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.

By: last night a dj saved my life

last night a dj saved my life — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:28:29 -0800

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:30:21 -0800

This post did not receive express written permission from the NFL or one of its authorized affiliates. .

By: BobbyVan

BobbyVan — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:41:54 -0800

I always loved these lines written by Steve Sabol for his early film "They Call it Pro Football".

It starts with a whistle, and ends with a gun. Sixty minutes of close-in action from kickoff to touchdown. This is pro football. The sport of our time.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:42:29 -0800

I think there was implied oral permission on this one. .

By: zix

zix — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:58:33 -0800

By: nadawi

nadawi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:08:29 -0800

when ed made the hall of fame, i was pretty sure his obituary would show up in a matter of months. reading now, it seems like steve's tumor was found a few weeks after the ceremony. life is weird...and is maybe its weirdest as it approaches death. nfl films and the sabols are one of the best things sports has given us. .

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:09:03 -0800

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:30:30 -0800

By: bukvich

bukvich — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:34:16 -0800

NFL films were an amazing thing to me when I was a boy. I looked up to those characters like they were gods. My European friends rarely get this American football thing. I tell them all to go to an NFL game but only if you are not too squeamish about violence. It is really horrifying if you think about it carefully, but no denying it is spectacle. The NFL films play this to the hilt as the focus of attention is only secondly on the god like personalities. The main focus is the barely constrained violence. A youtube search on nfl films hardest hits pulls this as the top: Bronco's safeties Atwater and Smith. "The Broncos defense flattened the Bills like a truck in the wrong lane." It's not bad with the 2D screen in between you and it. Watching any of this live close up would have been pretty creepy.

By: computech_apolloniajames

computech_apolloniajames — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:58:53 -0800

NFL Films is probably the most famous thing to come out of Mount Laurel, New Jersey. That or the Mount Laurel Doctrine.

By: klarck

klarck — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:23:57 -0800

. I can't hear "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor" without getting all psyched about a hall-of-fame quarterback rallying his trailing team down the full length of the field for the go-ahead TD.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:20:07 -0800

By: nadawi

nadawi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:49:10 -0800

The main focus is the barely constrained violence. i disagree with this. yes, in a program specifically about the hardest hits, they focus on the violence. nfl films is so much bigger than that, though. i think that hard knocks is possibly one of the most humanizing programs about football players ever. there's also the old games and the programs about bad weather games and ones that focus on specific players or coaches or the road to the superbowl. nfl films shows the game, all of it - the violence, the competitiveness, the joking, the insults, the relationship between players, the heartbreak, and the elation. also, even though i think technically it's not nfl films (but i'm pretty sure nfl films does the recording and archiving), soundFX is another great program that focuses on the men and not the violence that is possible because of ed and steve sabol.

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:53:11 -0800

☠

By: AJaffe

AJaffe — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:54:55 -0800

By: Phlegmco(tm)

Phlegmco(tm) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:29:03 -0800

If slow motion footage didn't exist, NFL films would have invented it. Didn't really like football as a kid in the '70s but sat in front of the TV mesmerized by this, so .

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:36:06 -0800

Fun fact: there was a period of time where NFL films shot more 16mm film stock than any other entity on the planet. Lot of love in my heart for the NFL films family right now.

By: gladly

gladly — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:57:44 -0800

Ray Didinger's reminiscence of Steve Sabol, his friend for 40 years. nfl films shows the game, all of it - the violence, the competitiveness, the joking, the insults, the relationship between players, the heartbreak, and the elation. Being able to hear the players as the game is happening was a huge part of why I loved watching NFL Films pieces. Maybe best of all was getting to overhear the conversations between players and coaches and the refs.

By: sixpack

sixpack — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:05:46 -0800

From that excellent Didinger piece: When we were putting together a film piece, he insisted we have at least one "backyard moment." By that he meant a moment that would make a viewer want to go outside and throw the football around. It might be a slow motion shot of Barry Sanders running or a Tom Brady pass spiraling in the crisp autumn air. Something, he said, that stirred those feelings. And that's the art of film making.

By: nadawi

nadawi — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:25:35 -0800

moment of silence to begin every game this weekend. tonight's game had a small video tribute. i totally teared up a little.

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:31:48 -0800

NFL Films and the Magic of Seeing Sports, S.T. Van Airsdale, The Awl, 28 September, 2012

Finish strong. Year after year after year. From the NFL's days idling in the long summer shadows of America's Pastime to its slow burn of supremacy to today's messy $9 billion monolith that has altogether swallowed the idea of American pastime as it flirts with illegitimacy, everything about NFL Films and the league its lens made legendary reflects Sabol's half-century of vision and genius and inducements, right up to the morning of September 18, 2012, when Steve Sabol died.