(Notes from assignments that didn’t make it into the story)

Steve Sabol died in 2012, but the spirit of the creative force behind NFL Films is still very much alive at the company’s Mount Laurel headquarters.

His original art–he was an artist by training and by inclination–hangs on walls throughout the building. Employees talk about him as though he died last week, not five years ago.

Maybe most striking of all, his large corner office is, according to Hugh Colan, exactly as he left it. Colan, who gave me and a photographer a tour of the company earlier this week, explained that Sabol was so beloved, and his guiding philosophy for the company so treasured, that employees decided the best way to honor him was to keep going on as though he were still there.

Liquor remains in bottles on a small bar in the corner. Hundreds of index cards bearing notes and quotes written by Sabol are still on a shelf; employees still use them as a resource, Colan said. A bulletin board still has memos and notes tacked to it.

And, clasped in a clip on the front of his desk, a hand-written question on a plain white sheet of paper: “Did you make someone smile today?”

Maybe that’s the reason he remains beloved by those who worked for him, even in death.

Read the full story here.