Everything I might've said about today's passing of Steve Sabol is covered in this good sentence from Michael David Smith at the ProFootballTalk blog:
Few people are able to turn their passions into a great professional legacy like the Sabols, who loved football, filmmaking and family and managed to combine them all into one when Ed and Steve started NFL Films together.
Also, I learned today that Steve Sabol is the one who actually wrote the epic "The Autumn Wind is a Raider" verse. I hate the Oakland Raiders, but, man, I love that "old ... man ... Willie" Brown Raiders movie in which this poem is featured:
The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.
Rest in peace, Mr. Sabol, and thank you for your work.
He was a great, great film-maker and he deserves more acclaim than he'll get.
ReplyDeleteHe got obit treatment at the HP. That puts him right up there with Whitney Houston, Sparky Anderson and Steve Jobs.
DeleteTony Kornheiser, in the first moments of his Sept. 19 show, delivers a fantastic tribute to Steve Sabol ... "the greatest archivist in sports history."
DeleteI miss NFL Films.
ReplyDelete