Editing NFL Films (section)

==Founding==
[[File:Official logo for NFL Films.png|thumb|left|Former NFL Films logo]]
Founder [[Ed Sabol]] was a [[World War II]] veteran who worked selling topcoats after returning to the [[United States]]. In his spare time, he used a [[motion picture]] [[camera]], received as a wedding gift, to record his son [[Steve Sabol|Steve]]'s [[high school football]] games. Inspired by his work, Sabol founded a small film company called Blair Motion Pictures, named after his daughter Blair.<ref name="ReferenceA">''Ed Sabol: A Football Life'' television program, 2011</ref> 

Sabol won the bidding for the rights to film the [[1962 NFL Championship Game|1962 NFL championship game]] for  [[United States dollar|$]]5,000, double the bid for the [[1961 NFL Championship Game|1961 championship game]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The film of that game impressed NFL Commissioner [[Pete Rozelle]], who asked the owners of the NFL to agree to buy out Sabol's company. Although the owners rejected Rozelle's proposal in 1964, they agreed a year later and renamed Sabol's company '''NFL Films'''. He received $20,000 in seed money from each of the league's then 14 owners, and in return would shoot all NFL games and produce an annual highlight film for each team.<ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web |author=Rebecca Leung |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-films-inc-26-01-2004/ |title=NFL Films, Inc. |date=December 5, 2007 |work=60 Minutes |publisher=CBS News |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205230507/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/stories/2004/01/26/60ii/main595946.shtml |archive-date=February 5, 2013}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web |url=http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/managing/articles/0,15114,361371,00.html |title=This Is NFL Films |work=Fortune |date=2010-12-14 |access-date=2012-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051218230552/http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/managing/articles/0,15114,361371,00.html |archive-date=2005-12-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In June 1966, the NFL agreed with the rival [[American Football League]] to [[AFL-NFL merger|merge]] in 1970. One of the reasons the leagues initially remained separate entities was to give Sabol adequate time to expand NFL Films in order to service a significantly enlarged league. Under the merger terms, NFL Films began covering the [[American Football League]] (AFL) in [[1968 American Football League season|1968]], ostensibly under a newly established "AFL Films" division. In reality, "AFL Films" crews these were simply regular NFL Films personnel wearing separate jackets to appease AFL loyalists.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtm68go0qNE|title = - YouTube|website = [[YouTube]]}}{{dead YouTube links|date=April 2022}}</ref>

On August 6, 2011, Ed Sabol was inducted into the [[Pro Football Hall of Fame]] as a major contributor to the National Football League. Sabol died on February 9, 2015, at his home in Arizona.