A sad day for fans of NFL Films. Steve Sabol helped transform the way we watch football.

From Roger Goodell:

“Steve Sabol was the creative genius behind the remarkable work of NFL Films,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Steve’s passion for football was matched by his incredible talent and energy. Steve’s legacy will be part of the NFL forever. He was a major contributor to the success of the NFL, a man who changed the way we look at football and sports, and a great friend.”

From the NFL Network obituary:

 Few men in the League have ever had a longer run. None has ever had a better one. He was the game’s first quintuple threat. An Emmy-winning auteur who won statuettes for cinematography, editing, writing, directing and producing. The only man ever to be so honored.

But it wasn’t hardware that Steve loved, it was the game. And he saw it as no one ever had. Through the eyes of an artist. With an unerring eye for detail, and a pitch perfect ear, Steve quickly transformed NFL Films from simple chroniclers of the game, to epic myth makers. And he did it, as all great artists do, by taking chances.

Super slow motion, wireless mics on players, reverse angle replays, follies films, and custom composed musical scores. All that’s standard stuff today, but before NFL Films it was unheard of. But then, Steve never thought like a sports filmmaker, he thought like a Hollywood storyteller. Big, bold, honest, and, funny. Those were the hallmarks of Steve’s work. And Steve himself.

From the New York Times obit:

“I may have started it, but he has been the engineer behind it,” Ed Sabol said of his son in a 2008 interview. “He comes up with these great ideas and is a great student of the game.”

Of the sports Emmy Awards won by NFL Films – 107, including two this year — Steve Sabol was cited by name on more than a third.

The films have impressed Hollywood. The director Ron Howard said in an interview with The New York Times in 2000 that NFL Films highlight reels had had a real impact on how movies are made, “particularly montages.” The director Sam Peckinpah once told Steve Sabol that he got the idea for the classic slow-motion gunfight scene in the 1969 movie “The Wild Bunch” after watching a Super Bowl highlights film Mr. Sabol had made.

He used film, not tape, for greater clarity. He interspersed the smacks and whistles with the sounds of a 60-piece orchestra playing Tchaikovsky. He highlighted emotional themes like comebacks and underdogs. He persuaded players and coaches to wear microphones. He made some of the first funny films of players’ “bloopers.” And he wrote scripts, often rhyming ones.

In a film review of the Oakland Raiders 1974 season, he wrote: “The autumn wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun. He’ll knock you around and upside down and laugh when he’s conquered and won.”

And there is all sorts of reaction on Twitter:

Rich Eisen:

All of us here at @nflnetwork are crestfallen and mourn the loss of the genius and iconoclast Steve Sabol. May he rest in peace.

Peter King:

Steve Sabol always refused to name his favorite player of all time: “It’s like asking me to name my favorite noodle in a spaghetti dinner.”

Mike Tirico:

He did not play or coach or own a team but few have impacted the NFL like Steve Sabol. So sad to lose this legend.

Bonnie Bernstein:

When you think of the NFL, you think of NFL Films. When you think of NFL Films, you think of Steve Sabol.

Joe Theismann:

RIP my good friend Steve Sabol. U meant so much to so many.

Andrea Kremer:

My heart breaks w/ news of passing of my former boss & dear friend Steve Sabol. Profound impact personally & professionally to so many.

More to come.