Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Steve Sabol, 1942-2012

Everything I might've said about today's passing of Steve Sabol is covered in this good sentence from Michael David Smith at the ProFootballTalk blog:

Few people are able to turn their passions into a great professional legacy like the Sabols, who loved football, filmmaking and family and managed to combine them all into one when Ed and Steve started NFL Films together.

Also, I learned today that Steve Sabol is the one who actually wrote the epic "The Autumn Wind is a Raider" verse. I hate the Oakland Raiders, but, man, I love that "old ... man ... Willie" Brown Raiders movie in which this poem is featured:

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.
His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.


Rest in peace, Mr. Sabol, and thank you for your work.

4 comments: