"The Ghost that Sacked the Quarterback" does deserve a higher rating than it has at the moment, speaking as somebody who overtime has gotten better at not taking ratings to heart as it is all subjective. Although there are definitely better episodes and it was never one of my favourites as a child, personally do not agree with it being rated lower than most of Season 3's episodes when it is better than a lot of episodes from that season.
My feelings for "The Ghost that Sacked the Quarterback" is in the category of "pretty much the same as when a child" as far as 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes go. Other categories being better now, gone down in estimations and never did care for, plenty in all those categories. When younger, the setting was great, the ghost was nightmare inducing as heck, there were some clever touches to the mystery and some funny moments, but even as a child the ending was underwhelming. Still feel the same twenty plus years on.
Quite a lot of good things here. There are some nice colours in the animation and lovely attention to background detail. The inside of the stadium has a good amount of atmosphere. The finesse again is not always there in the drawing, which is rushed at times which was not uncommon for 'The Scooby Doo Show'. The music has a nice 60s-70s charm, some endearingly familiar cues from being used in the previous two Scooby Doo shows (the original and 'The New Scooby Doo Movies') while having some of its own style as well. The theme song is still catchy. The writing is true in spirit to 'Scooby Doo Where are You' with a good mix of silly but amusing dialoguw and suitably spooky mystery. Shaggy and Scooby's writing always brings a smile to my face.
Speaking of spooky, the rambling ghost still holds up in my mind as one of the creepiest villains of Season 1 (along with Headless Horseman and Dr Coffin). It's that face and those eyes. The story is admittedly very formulaic, again not uncommon for Scooby Doo and anybody familiar with sports-themed Scooby Doo episodes (very familiar territory before 'The Scooby Doo Show' began) won't find many surprises. It still goes at a lively pace, captures the excitement and danger of the sport very effectively and has a creepiness. It also starts really well and the ghost's plan has some quite clever touches, especially the method of how one character disappears at the beginning. It has some nice moments with the gang too, the locker room scene is classic Shaggy and Scooby and the getting the newspaper cutting from the ghost had some great timing. Great to see more Shaggy, Scooby and Velma together. The voice acting is fine.
It is a shame that the last third of the episode isn't as strong as the rest. Nowhere near enough is done with the newspaper cutting, one of the most incriminating clues barely touched upon until the final solution. Speaking of the ending, am still underwhelmed and always did find it rushed and underdeveloped and the perpetrator's reveal on the last minute side.
As said, the story despite liking it on the whole for entertainment value is formulaic and could have done with more imagination.
Concluding, not one of my favourites of the show but pretty decent. 7/10
