By Nick Calabrese
Editor’s Note: As we sift through more of Mr. Sabol’s card catalog, we’re discovering tons of new insights on coaches. With the quotes, newspaper articles, and Steve Sabol’s thoughts – one could chronicle the entire career of a coach, from their early days as players and assistants, to their triumphs and losses, to their retirement. Please let us know what you think about Mr. Sabol’s famous card catalog by leaving a comment below or tweeting @NFLFilms with #MindofSabol.
Vince Lombardi
“To maintain his monument that late in his last season as coach in Green Bay he came to realize, like Hamlet, exactly what price he was paying. ‘I’m turning into an animal,’ he said.”
Bill Walsh
“A lot of coaches have moved X’s and O’s around in football since Lombardi. Bill Walsh turned them into notes. He moved them around like some great jazz musician, like Charlie Parker, made them juke and jump and finally fly.” – Steve Sabol
Joe Gibbs
“Joe Gibbs said he wanted to shake things up. If he shook any harder, he wouldn’t have a team, he’d have a daiquiri.” – Steve Sabol
Bill Cowher
“Cowher believes in doing the little things right. His philosophy is based on doing the little things right, because, he says if someone does not do the little things correctly, then he probably won’t do the big things correctly.” – Steve Sabol
“‘There is one myth for every man,’ wrote WB Yeats, ‘which if we but knew it would make us understand all that he did and thought.’ Al Davis’ myth was the Raiders. He created its traditions.. success.. etc.” – Steve Sabol
Al Davis
“Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” – Mignon McLaughlin
