We'll Miss Inside The NFL, And We Don't Think We're The Only Ones

Leitch|published: Thu 7th February, 16:40 2008

A sad day yesterday, kids: HBO canceled "Inside The NFL." This was the one NFL highlight show we watched, because we live in a planet where it's easier for us to have a premium cable channel in our apartment than a basic cable one.

Above is the greatest moment in "Inside The NFL" history, back when Dan Marino was still in "I'm a player and I'm pissed I never won the Super Bowl" mode. We miss that mode a little.

Everyone's all sad about it, but not really.

"It's like saying good-bye to an old friend," said HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, who added the show still averages 2 million viewers per week but increasingly had trouble differentiating itself in a sports TV landscape vastly more crowded than it was in 1977. "It's been a hell of a run," he said. "No shame here, no bitterness, no anger, just a lot of pride."

If we may, we'd point out that when "Inside The NFL" started getting away from running highlights of every game, and instead started showing the same dumb "human interest" stories the other shows went with, that's when the show felt less vital. They should just show those clips. That was always enough. Alas, now they will be another network we can't get. Sigh.

HBO Pulls Plug On Long-Running "Inside The NFL" [Newsday]