Watching A Football Life; Steve Sabol on NFL Network the other night confirmed again how truly lucky the National Football League has been. From the league's creation in 1920 up to the present the right people have always been in place. Men with the right vision for the league and the energy and drive to reach that vision. Almost to a fault, the future and reputation of the league was the priority of their lives.
It certainly helped the National Football League that for the first 63 years George Halas was always there. Some owners and coaches may have hated him on Sundays, and probably some other days, but everyone knew that the league was his priority. The 1920s were a rough decade for the NFL. Too many franchises came and went. Too many players followed the money and jumped from team to team. Too many people saw professional football as something closer to a circus. The college game dominated in popularity. When Joe Carr was elected President of the NFL in 1922, the league found the right man. Through his leadership, the league made it through the 1920s. He pushed for stable franchises in big cities. Halas in Chicago. Tim Mara in New York. Art Rooney in Pittsburgh. Bert Bell in Philadelphia. George Preston Marshall in Boston and then Washington. He brought stability and eventually legitimacy. The War years of the 1940s were rough for everyone. The NFL would have been better off if Carr was around for those years but he passed suddenly in 1939. The league survived. In 1946, the NFL again found the perfect man for the job in Bert Bell. Competitive balance was his chief desire. The draft was his idea when he was the owner of the Eagles in 1936. As commissioner, he pushed for revenue sharing. He rightly believed that the strength of the league was determined by the strength of each of it's teams. He pushed for television contracts. Much of the what Pete Rozelle accomplished as commissioner a decade later was initiated by Bell. Professional football still trailed baseball in popularity but the work of Bert Bell was closing the gap. His successor, Pete Rozelle would lead the NFL to the top of sports world. Strong team owners and excellent league leaders were always there when the league needed them. In the rough early days, through threats from rival leagues, World War II, anything. The NFL always had the right people for the job.
Now, I've always been a football nut. Everything about the game fascinates me. From the underrated work of the equipment manager to the fantastic play on the field. It wasn't long after the game took hold of me that I discovered NFL Films. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by the amazing films, the art, the emotion, the beauty. I didn't think that it was possible to make football better but NFL Films always found a way to do just that. Many, like me, discovered NFL Films because of their love of the game. There's another bunch of football fans that found their way to the NFL because of the incredible work of NFL Films. Ed Sabol's little Blair Motion Pictures won the rights to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and new York Giants. Imagine if Rozelle had selected some other production company to film that game. Where would the NFL be now? I doubt that Ed Sabol would have gone away quietly. We're all so very lucky that Blair Motion Pictures was selected in 1962. Once Sabol's work was seen, the NFL wasn't going to let him go. In 1964, Blair became NFL Films, with an exclusive contract to preserve all games on film. The NFL was hooked and we've all followed. Ed's work and passion brought Steve's vision and incredible eye for art. Together, they've made NFL Films one of the most incredible film production businesses ever. One of the most incredible businesses ever. Some might think it silly to equate the filming of football to art. The Sabols produce beautiful football art. Their work to push the NFL forward is every bit as important as the work of Halas, Carr, Mara, Rooney, Marshall, Bell, Paul Brown, Rozelle, Lombardi, etc.
The NFL has been so incredibly lucky.
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