Nfl Films

Sixteen years after they founded and built NFL Films into the nation's premier film producer of professional football, Ed and Steve Sabol were ready to move - again. The father-and-son team had started the business with four employees in a tiny office at Penn Towers in Philadelphia in 1962, and by 1978 had turned it into an 85-person operation in a three-story building at 13th and Vine Streets that they had outgrown. Ideally, they wanted to be in the suburbs, and it eventually came down to a choice between Valley Forge and Mount Laurel.

For the 40th time in 42 years, the NFL is going to stage a Super Bowl without the Philadelphia Eagles. No sense in detailing the sorry history of the two times the Eagles did make it to the league's grandest and gaudiest game, because it would just add to the depression so many of you are already feeling about this football season. There has, however, been one Philadelphia presence at all 41 Super Bowls, and he'll be here in the desert again tonight at University of Phoenix Stadium when the New England Patriots attempt to complete their quest for perfection against the New York Giants.

NFL Films has taped some of the most memorable shots in football history. The Ice Bowl and Super Bowls. The Immaculate Reception and The Catch. It brought us John Facenda's voice and Willie Brown's eyes and showed the perfect spiral as a thing of beauty. Of course, no one notices the cables. The Florence Flashes know about the cables. And the scaffolding. And the microphones. NFL Films rolled into Florence to shoot a six-minute segment for a half-hour special on football traditions that will air at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 21 on Channel 29. The Flashes' tradition of passing the torch from senior to underclassman was filmed last week, and four home games and hours of practice also were taped.

Steve Sabol, president of Mount Laurel-based NFL Films, will undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatment after doctors discovered a tumor on the left side of his brain. NFL.com cited an NFL Films statement Friday about the 68-year-old Sabol, a Moorestown resident who was hospitalized March 5 in Kansas City, Mo., after suffering a seizure. "[Sabol] will begin treatments soon," the company's statement said. "Steve is in good spirits and is deeply appreciative of everyone's good wishes.

THREE Blind Mice - that's what we should call our crime-fighting trio of Mayor Nutter, Police Commissioner Ramsey and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, who said officials would use community outreach to encourage people to help address youth issues, including violence, along with stepped up police presence. Wake up and let's go directly to the root of the problem. It shouldn't and wouldn't be the "community's" problem if parents who let their kids run the streets like savages were charged with accessory to felonies and made accountable for their lazy or nonexistent parenting.

A controversy over a chili commercial featuring two national icons from the Philadelphia region - the pro football narrator known as the "Voice of God" and the Campbell Soup Co. - has been settled. The son of the late John Facenda Sr., the veteran Philadelphia television anchor famous for his thunderous and melodramatic NFL Films narrations, sued the Camden-based soup company last year alleging it used a Facenda-sounding voice without permission or compensation. A cash settlement was approved Monday by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno.

CANTON, Ohio - His words were few. His impact, as usual, was immeasurable. Ed Sabol was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on a muggy Saturday night in Canton during ceremonies at Fawcett Stadium. The 94-year-old who created NFL Films in Philadelphia is bound to a wheelchair much of the time and hampered by the normal physical ailments brought on by age. But they have not touched his wits. "I dreamed a dream. The impossible dream. I dreamed the impossible dream, and I'm living it right this minute," said Sabol, who spoke for less than three minutes on a night fellow enshrinee Shannon Sharpe spoke for 26. Sabol then added, "I said that twice because at my age your memory starts to go a little bit. " His son and successor as NFL Films president, Steve Sabol, presented the elder Sabol in a video segment.

NFL Films president Steve Sabol will undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatment after doctors discovered a tumor on the left side of his brain. NFL.com cites an NFL Films statement yesterday about the 68-year-old Sabol, who was hospitalized March 5 in Kansas City, Mo., after suffering a seizure. "[Sabol] will begin treatments soon," the company's statement said. "Steve is in good spirits and is deeply appreciative of everyone's good wishes. " Sabol has worked with NFL Films since 1964.

The family of the legendary Philadelphia broadcaster John Facenda has filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL and NFL Films over the use of his well-known and distinctive voice to hawk a video game in an infomercial. A lawyer for the family, Paul Lauricella of the Beasley Law Firm in Philadelphia, yesterday said the suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia and names the NFL, NFL Properties L.L.C., and NFL Films Inc. as defendants. The suit contends that the defendants allowed recordings of the baritone known as the "Voice of God" to be used last August in an infomercial in advance of the release of a popular football video game, Madden 2006.

One of the most recognizable voices in the Philadelphia-South Jersey area is flying to San Diego today to mediate a major debate over the Super Bowl. No, not the one over who will win the 32nd annual sports extravaganza between the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos, said Jeff Kaye, whose voice is heard on NFL Films. "That will be decided on the field at Qualcomm Stadium. I'll be up in the booth, involved with the selection of the Bud Bowl player of the decade. " For 10 years, Kaye has been the voiceover for the Bud Bowl, the Budweiser TV commercial that pits two Budweiser bottle and can teams against one another in an animated football game.