Ed Sabol, whose innovative techniques for NFL Films helped raise pro football to America's favorite sport and earned him a niche in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 98.
Sabol died Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., the league announced. No cause was given.
"The creation of NFL Films in the early 1960s no doubt played a significant role in the growth of popularity of the National Football League," the Hall of Fame noted in announcing Sabol's election as a contributor in February 2011. "The man behind the idea of NFL Films was Ed Sabol. ... With [his] vision, NFL Films has revolutionized the manner in which sports are presented on camera."
An amateur cinematographer and former actor who longed to escape his job as a sales representative for his father-in-law's menswear factory in Philadelphia, a 45-year-old Sabol took a bold gamble. He contacted NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, offering to double the previous bid of $1,500 for the rights to film the 1962 championship game, which turned out to be between Allie Sherman's New York Giants and Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in Yankee Stadium.
Rozelle went for the deal and Sabol, whose previous experience consisted of making home movies of his family — son Steve playing peewee and high school football was a frequent star — suddenly had to come up with a production company. Sabol called Steve home from Colorado College and father and son quickly formed Blair Motion Pictures, named after Sabol's daughter, and hired a film crew.
It was Sabol's hope that, through the use of multiple cameras shooting color film — black-and-white was the norm for sports films — close-up shots of the players and coaches, slow-motion photography, stirring background music and authoritative narration, his film would present the drama of the game much in the manner of a Hollywood extravaganza.
Then came game day, Dec. 30, 1962, a bitterly cold day in New York. Cameras broke. Lenses froze. Film cracked. Sabol was a nervous wreck.
Recalling the day for CNN.com, he said: "At that particular moment, I was not interested in doing another game nor concerned about the future. I just wanted to get out of the stadium, get home and warm up."
Sabol's use of multiple cameras, however, saved the day and the film. When it was developed, spliced and edited a few weeks later, Sabol was so proud of the result that he titled the production "The NFL's Longest Day," borrowing the title of a World War II movie popular at the time.
The film, narrated by Philadelphia newscaster John Facenda, was greeted with great enthusiasm, and Sabol was on his way. For two years, he showed his NFL films wherever he could, at church groups, school gatherings, service club meetings. Then he went back to Rozelle, proposing that the NFL should have its own film company and that each of the 14 teams then in existence should have a highlights movie after every season. Some of the owners balked but, again, Rozelle liked the idea and persuaded each team to come up with $20,000 in seed money.
