Ed Sabol, in an undated photo, began his company from a hobby pursued through a wedding gift.
Ed Sabol, whose vision that football could become riveting cinema gave birth to NFL Films, which marshaled exquisite photography, rhapsodic
music and poetry to elevate pro football to the realm of myth, died on Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 98.
The N.F.L. announced his death on its website.
His son, Steve Sabol, a creative force behind NFL Films, died of brain cancer in 2012 at 69.
Ed Sabol played a significant role in making professional football America’s No. 1 spectator sport, in part by borrowing from Hollywood. He
deployed multiple cameras, zoomed in for raw close-up shots — of a linebacker’s bloody knuckles, for example — employed unexpected
angles, added slow motion for dramatic effect, and put microphones on players, coaches and officials, capturing exhortations and the thuds
and grunts of a violent game.
Along the way, he named the Dallas Cowboys America’s Team and invented the sports blooper genre.
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