Steve Sabol, American director and producer, co-founded NFL Films (b. 1942)
Stephen Douglas Sabol (October 2, 1942 – September 18, 2012) was an American filmmaker. He was the president and one of the founders of NFL Films, along with his father Ed. He was also a widely exhibited visual artist.
Sabol was born in Moorestown, New Jersey, and attended Colorado College, where he played football as a running back and was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was the subject of a humorous article about his self-promotion exploits in the November 22, 1965, issue of Sports Illustrated. He began working at NFL Films as a cameraman alongside his father Ed Sabol (1916–2015) after graduation. He started in the filming industry when his father got the rights to the 1962 NFL Championship Game, played in Yankee Stadium on December 30.
This company eventually grew into NFL Films, with Sabol serving mainly as a cameraman, editor, and writer in the 1960s and 1970s. When ESPN was founded in 1979, they soon signed NFL Films as a production company and Sabol became an on-air personality in the 1980s. He won 35 Emmy Awards and had a documentary about him air on 60 Minutes. Sabol played a part in founding the NFL Network.
Sabol was the author of the poem "The Autumn Wind", later adopted by the Oakland Raiders as an unofficial anthem.