A Lifetime of NFL Stories: Steve Sabol and NFL Films Highlights
Steve Sabol passed away today, sad though not unexpected news as he had been battling a brain tumor. Since he, and the NFL Films features were such a big part of our lives growing up (I remember watching all those videos in the afternoon after school on ESPN), we thought the least we could do was put up another homage with various random NFL Films contributions or thoughts from Sabol.
The opening montage of the NFL Memories show on ESPN:
Steve Sabol and others talking about NFL Films, including this fantastic quote from Sabol at the 1:16 mark: “We still have the Western Union telegram that my dad got from Pete Rozelle telling him that he had won the rights, for $3,000, to shoot the ’62 championship game.”
The Autumn Wind is a Pirate:
Super Bowl XIII Highlights, narrated by John Facenda, written of course by Sabol:
Marcus Allen’s run: Running Into the Night:
Before we had instantaneous highlights everywhere, NFL Films put together weekly highlights. Here’s a random one of Bengals and Rams in 1990:
Steve Sabol explaining “This is the Moment”:
NFL Films on Cursing:
Steve Sabol in the Lost Treasures on John Facenda. You’ll be missed, Steve:


- A.P. on Jalen Rose Leaving Numbers Never Lie, Jemele Hill in as New Co-Host
- The Wayne Fontes Safari on Jalen Rose Leaving Numbers Never Lie, Jemele Hill in as New Co-Host
- VladimirCrouton on Jalen Rose Leaving Numbers Never Lie, Jemele Hill in as New Co-Host
- beardown on Jalen Rose Leaving Numbers Never Lie, Jemele Hill in as New Co-Host
- Flaccid Indigestion on Jalen Rose Leaving Numbers Never Lie, Jemele Hill in as New Co-Host
23 Responses to “A Lifetime of NFL Stories: Steve Sabol and NFL Films Highlights”
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September 18th, 2012 at 3:06 PM
Thanks for this, Lisk. As many said in the other post, the Sabols, with Facenda narrating, were part of the fabric of growing up in the 70′s & 80′s and a huge part of why we are NFL fans.
/fuck cancer
September 18th, 2012 at 3:07 PM
What a sad NFL day. It was already sad after watching the product that Goodell put on the field last night…and now this. Fuck. I’m ordering every NFL Films DVD I can get my hands on and locking myself in my basement.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:09 PM
Such an awesome success story. Love the Sabols.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:12 PM
The Marcus Allen run FTW!!!
September 18th, 2012 at 3:12 PM
My mom used to get me the season recap videos for the Vikings every summer. It was awesome because I would get them like around July and it got me so excited because even when they sucked (and they did) the video managed to give you just a little glimmer of hope about the upcoming season.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:13 PM
love the story about the reusing of footage.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:15 PM
I’ve watched the old NFL Football Follies tapes so many times that I have the audio of the whole thing practically memorized.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Great man, brilliant innovator, NFL legend. RIP.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Great memories. Like the video of Facenda recording and messing up on names like Biletnikof.
Noticed that Staubach didnt do that wimpy qb slide that is so popular today.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:32 PM
Man that stuff brought back memories. Sad day indeed.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:34 PM
That’s interesting. I seem to remember him being one of the first sliders. All the kids in my neighborhood used to make fun of him for being a pansy.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:39 PM
Apropos of nothing, my Mom, a seamstress, used to be John Facenda’s tailor back in the day.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:40 PM
All of the QB’s I can remember have always slid. The only QB I can think of off the top of my head that didn’t (before my time of awareness) was Joe Kapp, and he got his ass handed to him by the Chiefs in the Super Bowl because of it.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Apropos of nothing, my Mom, a seamstress, used to be John Facenda’s tailor back in the day.
Back in the day when men had their go to tailors, cobblers, hat salesman, etc…
September 18th, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Back in the day when men had their go to tailors, cobblers, hat salesman, etc
I have a tailor I use for alterations, and a place I go to have my dress shirts made. And a shoe repair guy.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:55 PM
You have dress shirts made? I have a few places I frequent. How irregular of a size are you?
September 18th, 2012 at 3:56 PM
I love the swearing video. Man, getting cursed at by Bill Walsh would make me feel like total shit.
September 18th, 2012 at 3:58 PM
“Would you shut the fuck up and quit audibling all the time, Mr. Hero?” Gruden’s relationship with quarterbacks, summed up in one sentence
September 18th, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Is this a joke? You think Brady or any other franchise QB’s should lower their shoulder and take on oncoming tacklers?
September 18th, 2012 at 4:15 PM
You have dress shirts made? I have a few places I frequent. How irregular of a size are you?
pretty normal (40R suit), but I have slightly long arms. also, my neck is a little thick, but I’m kinda slim, and I have a hard time finding shirts where the neck is good but I’m not swimming in the shirt.
this place is cool, they have a machine that measures your whole body, and then send measurements to a factory to be made. $100 a shirt, which isn’t too much more than off the rack.
September 18th, 2012 at 4:18 PM
September 18th, 2012 at 4:25 PM
Um, good one, I guess.
September 19th, 2012 at 3:26 AM
Thanks for these. I’ve been watching NFL Films since the late 60′s. I think their heyday in many ways was the 70′s and early 80′s when so many great highlights from the 50′s and 60′s were seen regularly on a weekly basis and John Facenda’s voice and Steve Sabol’s words dominated the videos. It is too bad the NFL Network does not take advantage of NFL Films as sports television in previous decades did. They should & could have a regular NFL Films “hour” every day (looking into the past as well as present); instead they repeat today’s news over and over. Do they really think watching Warren Sapp make strange faces is more appealing? The NFL’s hubris just doesn’t get it. Sad.