'“There are a handful of broadcasters who are so distinctive when you hear their voice you immediately think of their teams,” said Steve Sabol, the president of NFL Films who died in 2012. “Van is associated with the Bills the way Ray Scott was with the Packers and Chuck Thompson was with the Colts. I could be blindfolded and hear that voice and in my mind I’m in Buffalo and it is Jim Kelly or Bruce Smith. Like all the great radio broadcasters, his delivery and the timbre of his voice approximates the rhythms and the shifts of the game. He has a certain energy to his voice that added to the pictures.”'