NFL Praises Sabol But Contradicts His Achievements

Those not completely familiar with Steve Sabol and his impact on this new age of sports entertainment may be unsure as to why his legacy is receiving so much attention from the media.

But he was more than a mere writer, producer, editor and cinematographer. He is being praised by many because he inserted the purest element of drama into what was once just a collection of faceless, voiceless bodies running around a rectangular field trying to inflict force on one another.

But he gave the game a narrative; he gave it storylines to follow. To explain Sabol in the most elementary of terms, he made the game more fun to watch.

This is why the timing of his passing is so tragically ironic.

As Roger Goodell and other disingenuous league executives praise the lifetime achievements made by Sabol, they blatantly damage the integrity of the same league that Sabol and his father helped make so spectacular. Games are no longer being decided by Bart Starr’s legendary quarterback sneak, Franco Harris’ fingertips, or any of the other thousand great endings to an NFL Films production. They are being decided by replacement officials who were too inept to ever become Division 1 college officials. They are being decided by five minute replays, multiple camera angles, and vague rules that neither the refs nor the players seem to understand very well.

And Monday night’s game was the climax of it all. On national television, the Green Bay Packers were stripped of an ever-elusive National Football League win in Seattle, one of the toughest places to play. An NFC game with certain playoff implications was decided because of a comical roughing the passer penalty that gave Seattle the ball back, the most egregious pass interference penalty one will ever witness, and a referee who either didn’t understand the “dual possession” rule or was too intimidated by Seattle’s “12th man” to make the correct call.

The narrative of the league is no longer being told by Harry Kalas reading a script that Hollywood directors would kill for. It’s no longer being told in the poetic words of Sabol or being decided by the best athletes in the world.

It’s being told by incompetent officials. It’s being told by team owners who only care about winning because of the profit it helps create. It’s being told by interpretations of rules that are too difficult for anyone to understand.

I’m not quite sure what is going to happen from all of this. I believe that this game alone will get the qualified referees back on the field, but regardless of when or if they do, the NFL is not the greatest league in the country anymore and today’s NFL couldn’t look less like an NFL Films production.