When we were younger we had a cassette tape with all of the music from those old NFL documentaries. You know the documentaries I’m talking about. The one’s with the slow motion shots, the dramatic orchestra music and that deep-voiced “frozen tundra” guy? To be goofy we’d play football outside in slow-motion while the cassette tape played along.<\/p>\n
We didn’t realize it at the time but while we were being goofy, we were actually being impacted by a truly great pioneer to both the world of sports and the world of film – Steve Sabol.<\/p>\n
Sabol was the epitome of a visionary, forever changing the way sports films were made. He put multiple cameras on the field and utilized various camera speeds to give him many more editing options and in turn, creating a vastly superior product than anything that had existed before.<\/p>\n
Even though video is more cost effective, for most of his work he used film as it provided greater clarity. He wrote most of the rhyming scripts and was the innovator of what we now call “bloopers”. Some of his other great innovations were putting a microphone on players and coaches, playing loud booming classical music over his footage and using lots of close ups and slow motion shots. He wasn’t showing game footage. He was presenting an epic battle.<\/p>\n
When Sabol and his father, Ed, began making these films in 1962, football was the fourth most popular sport in America. In just a decade, it became #1. A position the sport still holds, in no small part to their work.<\/p>\n
Steve Sabol also had an effect on the film industry. It’s been documented that several Hollywood directors, including Ron Howard and Sam Peckinpah have been influenced in how they shoot montages from watching NFL films.<\/p>\n
A few years ago I was fortunate enough to attend a press conference being held by the New York Jets and HBO to announce that the Jets would be the next team to be featured on the series Hard Knocks. Rex Ryan and Woody Johnson spoke briefly as a couple Jets cheerleaders (Flight Girls) posed off to the side. It was relatively brief but what I found truly exciting was the time I got to listen to Steve Sabol speak. It was immediately clear we were listening to a man who not only loved, but appreciated, what he got to do for a living and importance of documenting the history of sports.<\/p>\n
Sabol passed away Tuesday at the age of 69 after a year and a half battle with brain cancer but his work and innovation will undoubtedly live on through his massive library of inspiring work. R.I.P Steve Sabol.<\/p>\n
If you’d like to learn more about me or discuss any of these topics further, I can be communicated with through Twitter (@burritt15), Facebook (MVP Suite Rides), Pintrest and LinkedIn. Appreciate any feedback you’d like to offer!
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