Life is good. Football is better. Steve Sabol More Quotes by Steve Sabol More Quotes From Steve Sabol When we started NFL Films, there were no focus groups, there were no demographic studies, there were no surveys. Every decision that we made, we made with our hearts, not with our heads. And, in the very beginning, we really didn't even have a business plan. Steve Sabol nfl focus heart Football is such a great game, but football players are so dull. Steve Sabol player games football That helped us nurture not only the game's traditions but to develop its mythology: America's Team, The Catch, The Frozen Tundra. Steve Sabol team games america There have been nine Super Bowls in New Orleans, and not all of them have brought the best of luck to NFL Films. We got robbed twice there, got food poisoning, and my hotel room was broken into on the day the Bears played the Patriots in January 1986. Steve Sabol nfl new-orleans broken My Dad hated his job. He sold overcoats, but he wanted to make movies. He had a failed career working with the Ritz Brothers - they were like the Marx Brothers, only a tier below. I always had a picture in my mind of him in a straw hat. Steve Sabol dad brother jobs I've been very lucky in the freedom that I've been given. Every artist needs two types of freedom: You need the freedom to - the freedom to come up with an idea or treatment - and then you need the other half of the freedom, and that's freedom from - somebody saying, 'This is great. This is how I want you to do it'. Steve Sabol artist two ideas I've always been fascinated by Picasso and how he would look at a single image through multiple perspectives and from separate moments in time. He would look at a woman's face and he would see almost a three-dimensional look even though it was a flat canvas. I thought, well why couldn't we do the same thing with a football play? Steve Sabol perspective play football I never thought of what I was doing as a way to sell the NFL. I was making movies about a sport that I loved, about players and coaches that I respected. I wanted to convey my love of the game through film. And most artists convey their love through art. And my art and my love was expressed through film. Steve Sabol player sports art The importance of an artist is bringing new signs into a language. Steve Sabol importance language artist I was kicked out of school one year for streaking. Steve Sabol years school If you can show something as complicated as two people falling in love with just music and camera angles, well, just think about what you can do with football. Steve Sabol falling-in-love football thinking Football is a sport of emotions, and we have to capture that in our films. Steve Sabol emotion football sports If there's one thing I can't stand, it's not being noticed. Steve Sabol top-gear one-piece holy-grail So they talk about heaven, and I don't know what is waiting for me up there. But I can tell you this: Nothing will happen up there that can duplicate my life down here. Nothing. That life cannot be better than the one I've lived down here, the football life. It's been perfect. Steve Sabol me waiting football life We see the game as art as much as sport. That helped us nurture not only the game's traditions but to develop its mythology: America's Team, The Catch, The Frozen Tundra. Steve Sabol game see team art I remember when we were making 'They Call It Pro Football,' which was our 'Citizen Kane.' The first line is 'It starts with a whistle and ends with a gun.' Steve Sabol citizen gun remember football When we started in the early '60s, football had a little bit of a tradition. But, they didn't have a mythology. And NFL Films, through our music and our scripts and our photography, created a mythology for the sport. Steve Sabol tradition music photography football The only other human endeavor on which there's more 16-millimeter film than pro football is World War II, and we're going to pass that in 2013. Steve Sabol more football war world We would get 20 different angles and then cut them all together. That's what I called it at the time - the 'cubistic' treatment of shooting football. It was the same thing Picasso did except we did it with a football play. It's taking a single image and looking at it from multiple perspectives. Steve Sabol looking together time football
