Steve Sabol Stephen Douglas " Steve " Sabol ( October 2 , 1942 – September 18 , 2012 ) was an American filmmaker . He was the president and one of the founders of NFL Films , along with his father Ed . He was also a widely exhibited visual artist . Sabol was born in Moorestown Township , New Jersey and attended Colorado College , where he played football and was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity . He was the subject of a humorous article about his self - promotion exploits in the November 22 , 1965 , issue of " Sports Illustrated " . He began working at NFL Films as a cameraman alongside his father Ed Sabol after graduation . He started in the filming industry when his father got the rights to the 1962 NFL Championship . This company eventually grew into NFL Films , with Sabol serving mainly as a cameraman , editor and writer in the 1960s and 1970s . When ESPN was founded , they signed NFL Films as a production company and Sabol became an on - air personality . He won 35 Emmy Award s and had a documentary about him air on " 60 Minutes " . Sabol played a part in founding the NFL Network . He is the author of the poem " The Autumn Wind " , later adopted by the Oakland Raiders as an unofficial anthem . NFL Films . As president of the most honored filmmaker in sports , Sabol continued to be the artistic vision behind the studio that revolutionized the way America watches football . Sabol and his father , Ed , who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on February 5 , 2011 , were honored in 2003 with the Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for “ revolutionizing the way America watches football and setting the standard in sports filmmaking . ” While NFL Films has won over 100 Emmys , Sabol himself has received 35 of those Emmys for writing , cinematography , editing , directing and producing . No one else in all of television has earned as many Emmys in as many different categories . Building on the entrepreneurial spirit of his father and founder of NFL Films , Sabol was named the 2002 Sports Executive of the Year by " Sporting News " magazine . Sabol also received the prestigious Pete Rozelle Award , which is presented each year to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the National Football League and to professional football . He joins a select group of honorees including : Vince Lombardi , Dan Rooney , Lamar Hunt , Tom Landry and Don Shula . In 2007 , the Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Sabol with the Dan Reeves Pioneer Award recognizing his innovative ideas that have contributed to the game of professional football . Sabol was the recipient of the 2010 Sports Leadership Award presented to him at the March of Dimes 27th Annual Sports Luncheon , which is one of the highest profile events of the year for the sports and sports media business in New York . In March 2011 , NFL Films was recognized with the Lamar Hunt Award for Professional Football , which is given in recognition of visionary leadership that has helped the NFL become the preeminent pro sports league in America . Sabol and his father , Ed , were inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in November 2011 , which was followed by Sabol ’ s induction into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in December . Sabol received the " Sports Business Journal " s “ Champions - Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business ” award in March 2012 for shaping the business of sports through his career of distinguished success . Sabol began his career in 1964 as a cinematographer working for his father and founder of NFL Films , Ed Sabol . As an All - Rocky Mountain Conference running back at Colorado College majoring in Art History , as well as an avid movie fan , Sabol was , as his father put it , “ uniquely qualified to make football movies . ” Sabol ’ s collage art was a natural outgrowth of his cinematic vision . As President of NFL Films , Sabol spent his entire career thinking about football and the positive values the game represents . In the process football became for Sabol a prism for looking at American society . Using symbolic imagery from both the sports world and popular culture , Sabol created a unique visual language that hearkens to times past and reminds us of the best in ourselves . Sabol exhibited at the ArtExpo in New York , the Avant Gallery in Miami , Florida , the Govinda Gallery in Washington , DC , the Milan Gallery in Ft . Worth , Texas and the Garth Davidson Gallery in Moorestown , New Jersey . Sabol won over 40 Emmys during his time with NFL Films and was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 . Sabol took over NFL Films from his father Ed , who founded the company , and instituted several groundbreaking ideas in the world of sports television . NFL Films was the first company to wire coaches and players for sound as well as the first to use slow motion and montage editing in sports . The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadephia inducted Sabol into their Hall of Fame in 1996 . Personal life . Steve Sabol was married for over a decade to his first wife , Lisa , mother of his only son , Casey Sabol . After their divorce , Lisa married John DeBella . Steve Sabol then married his second wife , Penny Sabol . Steve ' s sister , Blair , was the original namesake of Ed Sabol ' s production company , Blair Motion Pictures , before it became NFL Films . Death and legacy . On September 18 , 2012 , Sabol died of brain cancer in Moorestown , New Jersey , 18 months after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in March 2011 . He died two weeks before his 70th birthday , and a week after his father ' s ( Ed Sabol ) 96th . He was honored before every NFL game in Week 3 with a video tribute . On November 9 , One NFL Plaza ( headquarters of NFL Films ) was renamed One Sabol Way in his honor . References . Steve Sabol , Creative Force Behind NFL Films , Dies at 69 , The New York Times