Longtime NFL producer retires

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“There are 27 teams in pro football. And then, there are the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

John Facenda’s proclamation to kick off the 1979 Steelers highlights film captured a decade of greatness. He said those words, but a young man from Pittsburgh wrote them.

Bob Angelo, Neville Island High School class of 1970, retired two weeks ago after working 43 years at his dream job at NFL Films. That famous line about the ‘70s Steelers not only was his, he wrote, produced, directed and edited that highlights film and many more. He produced 10 for the Steelers, starting with their third Super Bowl season of 1978.

They were among the estimated 65 to 70 NFL team highlights films Angelo wrote, produced and edited for Films, where he did it all. Unlike other modern producers, he filmed games as well including the past 40 Super Bowls. The Super Bowl in Minneapolis was his last assignment.

“I came here in 1987 and Bob had been here awhile and he had the office next to me,’’ said John Wise, a Bethel Park native who has been with NFL Films 31 years and produced many of the Steelers highlights films since then, a baton Angelo handed him. “He was like my big brother, my mentor. We’re both Penn Staters, Pittsburgh guys, Steelers fans.

“He was the one who showed me the ropes, really. Bob was like a rock star.”

Angelo, a starting quarterback at Neville Island High, consumed NFL Films highlights as a kid. He and pals imitated them, playing slow-mo football in their backyards. He picked up his master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern after his degree from Penn State all the while badgering Steve Sabol of NFL Films for a job. He buried Sabol in correspondence, attaching copies of radio shows he did and articles he wrote, one a story for the Coraopolis Record.

Sabol hired him in the summer of 1975.

“He realized this guy really wants to work for us,’’ the irrepressible Angelo said.

His first assignments were to write, produce and edit films in 1975 for two expansion teams in Tampa Bay and Seattle, which did not have a coach, GM or players yet. But they had Bob.

“Sabol’s feeling was if you’re a writer and know how to put together a story, NFL Films can teach you everything you need to know about film production, and I agree with that.”

They taught it all to him and through the years Angelo had a hand in virtually everything at Films. He “invented” Hard Knocks, producing and directing those first two NFL Films productions broadcast on HBO. He produced and directed many of the NFL Films shows that were shown on network TV.

“Ange was like a multitool player,’’ said Keith Cossrow, a Mt. Lebanon native and a senior coordinating producer at NFL Films, where he has worked the past 20 years. “They don’t make them like that anymore. He’s the last of the cinematographer/producers, a Slash.”

While rare now for someone at Films to lug a heavy camera on the road on weekends to shoot games and then produce and edit all those shows, Angelo saw it years ago as a way of advancing.

“I realized producers who were going places at NFL Films also shot games,’’ Angelo said.

He filmed between 830 and 850 NFL games, and shot college games as well.

“He mastered the shot of the sideline reaction to touchdowns,’’ Cossrow noted. “He became the model for everyone else who did it.”

Those reaction shots from the Steelers sideline during their last Super Bowl victory, against Arizona, in Tampa nine years ago were all Angelo’s. His work from that game included a talkative Mike Tomlin and Charlie Batch, and the reaction of Hines Ward, who said he could not look as the Cardinals mounted a last-second desperation drive that failed. Ward finally looked and Angelo caught the receiver and Ben Roethlisberger falling down in joy as Kurt Warner fumbled in the closing seconds.

“Bob Angelo is the real deal,’’ said Jim Eyles, who grew up in Bethel Park and has worked for NFL Films since 1994, the past 12 years as director of graphics.

Angelo’s dad worked at Dravo Corporation helping to build ships on Neville Island for 34 years.

“He never made $10,000 a year,’’ said Angelo, who earned $13,000 his first year on the job at NFL Films. “I started out making more than my father ever made. I guess that’s the American dream, huh? My dad paid for me to go to Penn State and Northwestern. I kept telling him I’ll make this worth your while. I had no idea.”

Among his favorite moments were shooting every Steelers Super Bowl starting with XIII. He filmed four of their victories.

“I grew up in Pittsburgh and I shot Super Bowl XIII. Being there when Jackie Smith dropped that pass and Franco ran it up Dallas’ butt for the game-winning touchdown, that’s as good as it gets.”

Angelo was involved in a famous debate between NFL Films and Art and Dan Rooney over what to call their highlights film from the 1979 season when they won their fourth Lombardi trophy of the ‘70s.

Angelo suggested “Team of the Decade.” The Rooneys rejected that idea.

“They won four in six years,’’ Angelo said. “It was unprecedented. It looked like this was the greatest team of all time, and it still might be the greatest team dynasty with the small changeover of players.

“The biggest problem was we couldn’t come up with a title. Everything I came up with, the Rooneys shot down because they were humble people and they didn’t want to blow their own horn knowing this would end some day.”

Angelo finally suggested a title the Rooneys accepted: A Cut Above.

“They loved it,’’ Angelo said. “And I was kind of pleased with that.”

He plans to teach a few television classes at colleges within driving distances of his Mt. Laurel, N.J. home. The next sporting event he will attend will be at his leisure, The Masters in April. He will do so without a camera.