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Remember NFL Films Mastermind Steve Sabol With Some Insight Into Why He Was So Good

Steve Sabol, the president of NFL Films, the company he helped build with his now-Hall-of-Fame-enshrined father Ed, died today from brain cancer. He was 69. The tributes to Sabol and what he led NFL Films to achieve are already legion. When reporting the news on NFL Network, Rich Eisen was visibly distraught. It’s no wonder why: NFL Films could make even a bunch of guys cursing into high art.

The face masks might take some of the personal connection out of football, but the moments captured by NFL Films help put it back in, and that’s why you’re seeing Sabol get so much credit right now for helping make the NFL as popular as it is. He had a gift for making every aspect of the NFL seem larger than life – and now, it pretty much is larger than life.

How’d he do it? A few quotes from Sabol here provide insight – and while you’re at it, why not listen to the man himself talk about his approach? He does just that below (and you’ll get more testimonies to his brilliance while you’re at it). RIP.

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