02:29 AM CDT on Saturday, May 10, 2008
Steve Sabol, 65, is the guru of NFL Films. His official title is "president," but "heart and soul" would be more apt. Films started as a family business, with Steve's dad, Ed, giving up life as a coat salesman to shoot film of football games. Its first venture was the 1962 NFL Championship Game. The Sabols' company was called Blair Motion Pictures before they sold it to the NFL.
Steve Sabol has been a cameraman, writer, editor and producer. ESPN made him an on-air personality when it acquired NFL Films rights soon after its own birth in September 1979. Sabol has personally banked 27 Emmys.
Sabol was in town this week for the announcement that the Dallas Cowboys will star in their second Hard Knocks training camp series on HBO. Make no mistake: Hard Knocks is an NFL Films production. HBO is only the midwife here.
Last season, Hard Knocks offered a look at the Kansas City Chiefs' training camp. The move to the Cowboys, stars of the 2002 Hard Knocks, is like going from the Meineke Car Care Bowl to the Super Bowl.
As he sat down to chat after the official news conference, he lamented that he probably would be the last Sabol to head "the family business." His heir apparent, he said, has chosen life as a heavy metal rocker.
Is "Hard Knocks" hard journalism or entertainment?
This is not investigative journalism. We're not looking to break stories. We're NFL Films, part of the NFL. We're cinéma vérité, hoping to bring fans where they can't otherwise go.
After the last Cowboys appearance, you went from 2003 to 2006 without producing a "Hard Knocks." Why?
One year HBO didn't want to do it because of the Summer Olympics. The other years we couldn't find any willing teams.
Would the Bill Parcells Cowboys have made for good "Hard Knocks" fodder?
Yeah, he would have been great. Parcells has a unique gift of gab and way of communicating with players. He had no interest. But we've miked Wade Phillips every place he has been a head coach. I think people will find out he is a brilliant X's and O's guy.
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NFL Films chief says Dallas Cowboys ideal fit for Hard Knocks
NFL Films chief says Dallas Cowboys ideal fit for Hard Knocks
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