67 Quotes by Steve Sabol

But I can tell you this: Nothing will happen up there that can duplicate my life down here. That life cannot be better than the one I’ve lived down here, the football life. It’s been perfect.

I’ve always believed in making films that you make the little decisions with your head, but you make the big decisions with your heart.

You know how I came up with the name ‘Road to the Super Bowl?’ It’s an homage to the old Bob Hope – Bing Crosby buddy movies – you know, like ‘Road to Zanzibar’ or ‘Road to Morocco.’ Can you tell? All I’ve done my whole life is go to movies.

A perfect record does not mean that someone is the greatest. Rocky Marciano never lost a fight, but I never hear anyone say he’s the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.

I have loved football as an almost mythic game since I was in the fourth grade. To me, the game wasn’t even grounded in reality. The uniform turned you into a warrior. Being on a team, the mythology of physical combat, the struggle against the elements, the narrative of the game.

When we started NFL Films, there were no focus groups, there were no demographic studies, there were no surveys. Every decision that we made, we made with our hearts, not with our heads. And, in the very beginning, we really didn’t even have a business plan.

My Dad hated his job. He sold overcoats, but he wanted to make movies. He had a failed career working with the Ritz Brothers – they were like the Marx Brothers, only a tier below. I always had a picture in my mind of him in a straw hat.

To me, football is very personal. Even as a kid, I looked at football in dramaturgical terms. It wasn’t the score that interested me, it was the struggle.

I don’t go to games as much as I used to because of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket. So I’ll watch the games, take notes.