Ed Sabol

I think this is going to be a new section to the blog. The "lost entry" section can be amusing, but it doesn't cover those situations when I simply take two, three or four weeks to write about something that I've been meaning to write about. I think I'll call it "Running Late."

Innovative filmmaker, Ed Sabol was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 6th.

Coming from a large extended family of football fans, I grew up watching football frequently. It wasn't every Sunday and Monday, but it was close. And, as cable television expanded in the 1970s and 80s into the suburbs around Philadelphia, the number of channels on which I could watch sports highlights also expanded. Not that I was a big sports fan. I didn't have the discipline, size, or stamina to play. I also lacked the ability to stay focused--an important skill to have if one is going to be a serious fan.

What I did have was a set of working eyeballs, a pulse, and a brain susceptible to the cinematic rhetoric of Ed Sabol.

Sabol's ability to put together to moving images from critical angles, in slow motion and accompanied with a score designed to inspire feelings of heroism, competition, and struggle, made my heart race.

Here's an NFL Films look at the Dallas-Philadelphia rivalry. And, here's an NFL Films look at Philadelphia fans. I love it when Peter Nero, conductor of the orchestra, talks about a concert-goer wearing an earpiece so he can hear the game score as he listens to the orchestra on a Sunday afternoon. Of course, there's also this quote from Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Philadelphia Fans love football in a really dark and disturbing way. . ."

NFL Films apparently also knows how to do research.

Newsworks.org, the new WHYY news initiative here in Philadelphia, has this list of best NFL Films.