As I wrote last week, Joe Posnanski has moved to NBC, where among his duties, he will write a “Big Read” column on Fridays for NBCSports.com. His latest effort was a nice piece on Steve Sabol.

Posnanski writes:

Steve Sabol never hid his intentions or his motivations. He saw it as his life’s goal to make everyone see pro football the way he saw it — as the greatest thing in the entire world. Of this, he had no doubts, no uncertainty, no hesitation. This is what it means to be a true believer.

His first big effort for NFL Films was the seminal film, “They Call It Pro Football,” made in 1966. “It starts with a whistle and ends with a gun,” John Facenda said at the beginning of that movie, which changed everything and is now listed in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

“It was our Citizen Kane,” Steve Sabol said. He was 24 years old and ready to spill everything he loved about football, everything he believed about football, everything he cherished about football onto the screen. It would be big, it would be bold, it would be over the top — that was how Sabol did things.