Steve Sabol, RIP

Steve Sabol, whose father Ed started NFL Films half a century ago and who concocted the near-perfect blend of cinematography and propaganda that helped make the league the country's largest sporting entity, died of brain cancer Tuesday at age 69.

I could go on and on about the hours I spent rampaging through my house as a kid, tossing a Nerf football to myself while crashing, slow-motion, into imaginary end zones and terrifying my mother with the thought of the ball or I breaking something valuable, all while humming the stunningly dramatic orchestrations that accompanied the NFL Films highlights that inspired me.

Or the way I made it through church during the rather brief period when I had to go every week by imagining the unspeakable pleasures to come when we got home and the weekly NFL Films-produced half-hour of highlights came on, right before the then-30-minute network pregame shows.

Instead, We Want Marangi offers a more fitting tribute to the guy who -- at the risk of espousing the sort of NFL Films-style hyperbole which helped turn pro football Sundays into the closest thing America has to a universally celebrated religious holiday – revolutionized the way the game is perceived: A collection of NFL Films clips.

I spent those anxious Sunday mornings squirming in my pew, imagining what havoc Earl Campbell had wrought the previous week. Since the Houston Oilers were rarely featured in the two or three games offered by the networks, I had to rely on the highlight show. It, and he, almost always delivered.

Do yourself a favor watch, if only to see what he does to future Bills linebacker Isaiah Robertson and the rest of the Los Angeles Rams at the 2:30 mark.

Besides endowing a rather simple game involving an oblate spheroid and 100 yards of lawn with the importance of an epic struggle between good and evil, NFL Films specialized in the deification of players and, particularly coaches. And it made Vince Lombardi a god among gods. Especially when the footage was narrated by John Facenda, The Voice of God.

Facenda died in 1984 and was replaced by a succession of narrators, including Buffalo radio legend Jeff Kaye, so his baritone is associated with really old highlights by most under the age of 30. Around this time, Steve Sabol became the face of NFL Films. Here he is in the role for which younger fans remember him – host of myriad NFL Films productions. Plus, it features plenty of one of the elements I remember most vividly from the Sabols’ weekly highlight packages from the 1970s – the way they captured the flight of long, arcing passes, often in slow motion.

And here is Sabol introducing a piece featuring another NFL Films specialty – the creative bleeping of sideline and on-field swears.

Lastly, a tribute to Sabol himself from the NFL Network, which he helped found and on which he helped to fill many, many hours.