We're pretty sure Steve Sabol was proud of NFL Films' latest triumph.

Ray Lewis: A Football Life premieres tonight on NFL Network, and it's definitely worth setting your DVR for this one. If America used to love Brett Favre for his seeming childlike love for the game, this show is a window into Lewis' passion for life on the field and off.

NFL Films documented his 2011 season with the Baltimore Ravens -- he became the first player ever to wear a wireless microphone for an entire season -- and takes you well beyond his bone-jarring tackles, injuries, scraps, triumphs and defeats.

"The game will fade one day," Lewis says. "I realize that success is one thing. Impact is another. I live to impact people."

And that's where you'll see Lewis addressing law students at Harvard. You'll see him comforting a terminally ill fan and his family in their Maryland home. You'll see him talking to a soldier who wore Lewis' No. 52 jersey under his battle fatigues and gave the linebacker his Purple Heart.

"That type of interaction with people who really look up to you, that can change a life instantly," Lewis says.

And you'll see him as an active dad in the lives of his six children -- going to games, attending picnics even while injured, playing Monopoly -- embracing a role that most men in Lewis' family have not, including his father.

"I turned pain into my friend," he tells the Harvard students, not really referring to his football injuries. "The only way to ever defeat pain is recognize that pain exists."

There's plenty of football, too, especially surrounding battles with the archrival Pittsburgh Steelers. Lewis owns his legacy while urging his teammates to forge championship memories of their own.

"We've got to savor these moments because they're right now. I couldn't understand that when I was 24 and 25. That's why God had to incarcerate me so I could see how great my blessing was he had for me," he says before the Ravens' team meeting with Pittsburgh at Heinz Field.

Later he adds: "Now I appreciate sitting in meetings, I appreciate going to practice, I appreciate how pure the moments really are."

This is pure Ray Lewis at its best, and NFL Films has beautifully synopsized the essence of a man who seems destined to be remembered for much more than arguably being the greatest linebacker in league history.

And he seemed only too grateful to provide the access to Sabol, who died of cancer Tuesday.

"You can have reservations if you have anything to hide or if you don't trust the people that you're working with," Lewis said this morning on NFL Network's NFL AM.

"But I have worked with those guys for so many years, and I knew that Steve and they had a great vision for what they really wanted to get accomplished. So when they asked me to do it, I was really overwhelmed."

Don't miss the final product. Ray Lewis: A Football Life airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET and will be re-aired throughout the week.