Steve and Ed Sabol, the father and son team who created the legendary NFL Films, before the 1991 Super Bowl. STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Ed Sabol loved filming his only son, Steve, playing pee-wee and high school football * Big Ed bid on 1962 NFL championship, intending to bring Hollywood feel to highlight film * From there, NFL Films was born, using new techniques to give players god-like qualities * On Saturday, Hall of Fame selectors will vote on Ed and 14 other candidates (CNN) -- When Steve Sabol was a fourth-grader, he loved two things: football and the movies. Well, three things: football, movies -- and football. Steve, the only son of Ed Sabol, hereafter called Big Ed, played on a team of 70-pounders in southern New Jersey in the 1950s. Big Ed, using a Bell and Howell film camera, skipped out of work and shot the games, sometimes from the roof of the school. When Big Ed was done selling overcoats for the day, the Sabol family often had the other kids on the team over for apple cider and Mom's cookies -- and a private screening. Big Ed would set up the projector and the phonograph and revel in the exploits of the little lads in their leather shoulder pads. John Philip Sousa or Stan Kenton and Woody Herman would provide the soundtrack. "My dad, he loved to make movies, and in football he found the perfect subject," Steve said. As Steve grew older and became a decent high school player, Ed kept at it, capturing every snap, tackle and touchdown on film. Years later, the boys on the film were replaced by men named Hornung and Kramer and Lombardi and Bradshaw and Swann. For in the Sabol house, the vision of NFL Films was born to a disgruntled salesman who thought football movies were fun to watch, but ... "I knew I could do better," Ed said. Ed Sabol is 94 now, retired and living in Arizona. His creative mind is as fertile as ever, says his son, who took over NFL Films in 1987. The elder Sabol is on the ballot for Saturday's Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor. Most of the men who have been inducted as contributors were coaches who changed the game or were past commissioners. On Saturday, voters will select five men from the 15 finalists. Big Ed is the only non-player on the final ballot. Sports Illustrated: See the final candidates It's time for him to be celebrated, many NFL observers say. After all, NFL Films changed the way the league was viewed, not just by fans but by all Americans. "Every other major sports league is envious of the National Football League because it has NFL Films to document their history and grow the game," said Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, a Hall of Fame voter who will make the case for Big Ed on Saturday. "You'll always have your rabid fans, but NFL Films made it easier for the casual fan to grasp pro football and embrace it." We took what every fan felt about the game and added music and sound, and we magnified and we glorified and we put it on a movie … [Read more...]
