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| Sabol died at the age of 69. (US Presswire) |
NFL Films president Steve Sabol died Tuesday morning after an 18-month battle with brain cancer. He was 69.
Sabol was one of the driving forces behind NFL Films -- which has allowed fans to see a different side of football for the past 50 years. His father, Ed Sabol, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, started the company and convinced the league to let him film the 1962 NFL title game. Eventually, Sabol, with help from Steve, started NFL Films, and the league was never the same.
Everything you see on Inside the NFL? NFL Films. Much of what you see on the NFL Network and NFL.com? NFL Films. The wonderful documentaries on football? NFL Films.
Steve started with the company as a cinematographer in 1964, and from there, he began building the company of which he’d eventually become president.
NFL Films has won more than 100 Emmys, and Sabol has won 35 of them individually (for writing, cinematography, editing directing and producing. Nobody else has ever won for so many different categories.
"But it wasn't hardware that Steve loved, it was the game," wrote NFL Films in its Sabol obituary. "And he saw it as no one ever had. Through the eyes of an artist. With an unerring eye for detail, and a pitch perfect ear, Steve quickly transformed NFL Films from simple chroniclers of the game, to epic myth makers. And he did it, as all great artists do, by taking chances."
