PROFESSIONAL SPORTS: Gamesmanship, Ethics, and Cheaters

Remember that classic scene in the movie "Casablanca" where the police are about to raid "Rick's" casino:

    - RICK (Humphrey Bogart): "How can you close me up? On what grounds?"

    - CAPTAIN RENAULT (Claude Rains): "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

(a casino employee hands Renault a pile of money)

    - CROUPIER: "Your winnings, sir."

    - RENAULT: (softly) "Oh, thank you very much."

    - RENAULT: (loudly) "Everybody out at once!"

 

Here's what I think about the New England Patriots and "DeflateGate":  Since it's so commonly known among NFL officials that under-inflated footballs are easier to throw and catch in wet/cold weather, it seems to me that under-inflated balls are also just as easy to throw and catch in the heat of summer.  And if NFL officials know this, and the Patriots know it, then it's not unlikely that every other team in the league knows it, too, including the Indianapolis Colts who, coming to play in the outdoor cold of Foxboro, MA, in January, would have benefited the most from that knowledge. And if the NFL knows the benefits of using cheating footballs, then their farm teams (the NCAA) know it, too.

 

So, here it is:  I seriously doubt that the Colts were all that surprised by this scandal. If they were surprised, it was probably because "civilians" (those of us outside of the NFL's fraternity circle) found out about their close-hold secret so publicly--everyone's been outed! 

 

Everyone's now got the stink eye peeled on the Patriots, but only because they won--and won big, so check those balls (uh, footballs, I mean).  But did the umps check the Colts' balls (errr, footballs) during that game?  How about the Seahawks?  And seriously, other than Off Track Betting (OTB), Vegas, and the millions in fantasy, who really gives a damn about the losers, or their balls?  But how much do you wanna bet the Redskins, or the Jets, or the Raiders also deflated their balls (verdammt! I meant "footballs!!")?

 

My point: Why is anyone suddenly shocked that there's cheating, immorality, unethical conduct, graft, dishonesty, and corruption (and murder, and sex assault, and bigotry, and perjury) in an industry that involves hundreds and hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars, which incentivizes its players who haul in hundreds and hundreds of millions of those dollars?  Wait, I forgot, these are our kids' role models...that's a scary thought! 

 

So, did the Patriots cheat? Probably.  Steroids, point shaving, bounty hunting, game fixing, deflated footballs, corked bats, betting on your own team, taking dives, sandpaper, tar, bribery...this is all the nature of professional sports.  As fans, we're now feigning surprise and false indignity.  Just wait until next year!

Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, and NFL rules

I am going to do two things that I try not to do in this post. Talk Semi-Blasphemy about the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. The second is to agree with Ray Lewis. The first is because this blog is led by a fearless leader who really likes his New England teams. I respect that, so I will poke fun at him once in a while because of what happens to his teams but stay away from some controversies. The second is because I just think that Ray Lewis is a blowhard that usually makes no sense. But I am violating these rules because it goes to a larger point that Zeb was trying to make with the Dez Bryant non-catch and Ray Lewis was speaking about when he mentioned Tom Brady awkwardly.

Think back to 2001 and the New England Patriots. Drew Bledsoe gets hurt early in the season. And I still cannot believe that Zeb is at the front of the line for him to be a Hall of Famer. Anyways, in comes Tom Brady to lead the Patriots into the playoffs and that fateful playoff game against the Raiders in Foxboro. We all know what happens in the "Snow Job", Charles Woodson strips Tom Brady of the ball but there is a tuck rule that had been put in place in 1999 for some reason.

Imagine what would have become of Tom Brady had the Patriots lost that game. First thing is that the Patriots do not win that Super Bowl. Duh! The dynasty of the Patriots may have never came into being. Why? Because at that time Bill Belichick is not considered a certified genius at the time. After the disappointment of that loss, you think that Belichick would have stuck with Brady at quarterback, or turned back to the veteran Bledsoe who was ready to start that 2002 season healthy? If you say Brady, then stop reading this post. You are too delusional for rational thought.

If Bledsoe leads that 2002 team, I don't think that Brady is in Foxboro too much longer. They have a commodity that is valuable as a trade chip and a previous league MVP in front of him. I believe that the Patriots trade Brady and never obtain the dynasty that they have had in the AFC East for the past 15 years. There is something about Brady that is able to get the best out of his teammates that Bledsoe never could in his years in the league. So the Patriots might have become the 49ers of the 2010's. Good enough to make the playoffs and even possibly a Super Bowl, but not good enough to have a sustained run of being the favorite each year to win the entire thing. I believe that the 2003 and 2004 championships would never come into being because Brady and his magic were the reason for the win over Carolina. The Eagles defense would have had much more success against Bledsoe if he were still playing in 2004. 

When Ray Lewis launched his nobody would have ever heard of Tom Brady except for the tuck rule rant, he was discussing how the NFL has way too many rules for the game that is being played. I think that Tom Brady would have become a starting QB somewhere else, he wouldn't be the superstar that he is today. But his point is this, we fans all saw a fumble that Charles Woodson caused during the "Snow Job". The only reason that it wasn't is because of a rule that the NFL had passed because of some incident earlier in history that they thought they needed to legislate. And that is what started Tom Brady on the path to super stardom. I happen to agree with that.

On Zeb's and Lewis's argument that the NFL has too many rules, I concur. But I also see the other side of the argument. Remember why the NFL says that the defense has the right to substitute when the offense does? It is called the Wyche rule. Sam Wyche used to substitute players quickly and run the play. He wasn't breaking the rules, but the "spirit" of the rule for substitutions. So a new rule had to be put into place. Sort of what will probably be put into place after the "4 OL formation" the Patriots utilized against the Ravens. It didn't violate the rules, but the "spirit" of the rules.

Less rules would make the NFL a more interesting game, but then we will go back to the era of hucksters and people being befuddled if a play is legal or illegal. More rules will make it more regimented and stifle innovation. It is a balancing act that the NFL needs to get correct. Sometimes, it fails on that. The Dez Bryant non-catch is one of those fails. So the next time that you complain that a rule is stupid, remember earlier in the history of the league, there was another call where the public said that they needed that exact rule to make sure that an injustice would not be committed again.

Patriots win Divisional Round

I don't know if it was rust or what, and give the Ravens credit, but things looked pretty bad for the Pats early on in this game, as the Ravens marched down the field pretty easily two straight times to put the Pats down 0-14.  The Patriots righted the ship and got back in the game, only to have Tom Brady make two very big mistakes.
First, he took back-to-back sacks to take them out of field goal range and thus take 3 points off the board.  Then after tying up the game at 14 and holding Baltimore to a three and out, Tom throws a bad interception in a minute to go in the half, giving the Ravens the ball at their 40.  The Ravens go on to a score a touchdown that they should've had no business getting.
In the end the defense got its act together enough to slow Baltimore down and allow the Patriots to take the lead and the win in the end.  The Patriots' only lead was the final touchdown they scored, winning 35-31.  The highlight of the game was a flea flicker pass TD from Julian Edelman to Danny Amendola.  Amendola had a big game, which was good to see for a guy who'd been a bust since he's been here, except for the last few weeks.
On to the conference championship next weekend.  Go Pats.
Oh, a couple of milestones for the Patriots in this one.  Tom Brady passes Joe Montana for all-time playoff touchdowns and Bill Belichik ties Tom Landry for all time playoff wins.

Tale of Two Halves

The Cleveland Browns were coming to town. 4-8 record, should be a win as long as the New England Patriots don't play down to the visiting team. Hoping the defense does the best they can with what's left in the cupboard. Again. Another game where New England spends all of the first half on the field with shovels digging a hole.

You try googling "New England Patriots Shovel" and get back to me. 

Granted, the hole was only two field goals deep. It's becoming a worrying trend, though. If they keep this up, one game they'll end up in China at halftime, which could be problematic. I don't think they have a place to carry their passports in those uniforms.

Actually closer to Australia. Try it yourself, here.

There were no adjustments made at halftime with the exception of "see these plays? Execute them." Er, not that kind of execute.

Not a firing squad.

They did some of that, as well as losing Gronkowski to injury. Or as my daughter calls him, the Dunkin Donuts man. Hard to argue against that designation. Not posting a photo or .gif of that, I am tired of seeing it.

That didn't last long.

I wouldn't blame the player for the hit. T.J. Ward is just doing his job and playing hard. Coach Belichick understands he's just playing the game.

Let the hate flow through you. (™Lucasfilm)

The Patriots did the impossible again, coming back to win the game, 27-26. Incredible finish to a wild game. A nail biter, heart attack special kind of affair. Yes, there was a late penalty with 40 seconds left in the game. This makes the Patriots 1-2 in end-of-game deciding calls. They are a magnet for this kind of nonsense this year. Having said that, one call rarely decides a game. There is every single play up to that point. The pass interference call yesterday that some people are screaming about?

Some people, fig. 1

 Guess what people? The Patriots were down 12 points with 2:39 to go. One pass interference call doesn't give you two touchdowns. One pass interference call doesn't give you a free onside kick recovery. In fact, the last time the New England Patriots recovered an onside kick was January 1st 1995, 18 years ago against the Cleveland Browns. Despite the onside kick recovery,The Patriots still lost that game long ago against the Browns' fourth year coach, Bill Belichick. Last night's kick qualifies as a piece of art. Cleveland Browns players, catch that kick, the game is over. You win.

Like the Mona Lisa, but in pads.

One pass interference call doesn't explain why the Browns called their last timeout with 0:35 seconds to play, when they didn't need to stop the clock. Surely the pass interference call explains wasting the timeout when they could have run one more play, gotten 5-7 yards closer and made that kick to win the game.

Achievement not unlocked.

The New England Patriots scored two touchdowns in thirty seconds. The pass interference call helped, to be sure. It didn't execute all of the rest of the plays they needed to pull out a win, and the Cleveland Browns defense certainly didn't do their job and stop them.

Maybe the next time these teams play it can be fun times in Cleveland.

Credit to my daughter for this awesome video.

Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments.

History

Not a photoshop. 

When it comes to history being made in sports, you can often see it coming. The Stanley Cup Finals. The World Series. The Super Bowl. Almost any playoffs. I'd include golf, but we all know it's not really a sport. With the aformentioned events, you know it will be history of some sort. That doesn't always make it special. That brings us to Sunday Night Football this past Sunday. After the first three Patriots offensive possessions (and they were indeed, offensive) each ended with them coughing up the ball, history did seem to be taking place. A smackdown of historic proportion was in progress. The culmination of injuries to the Pats, Peyton Manning's monster season continuing and a few good bounces made it look like the reality of this season was setting in. This team, battered, bruised and delving deep into the roster, was hitting the wall. Somehow, they still managed to find a way to win. By halftime, my heart sunk. it was 24-0. The team left the field to a chorus of boos, which they earned. The mood was such that you were seeing statistics like this:

Not good. 

Some people changed the channel, some went to bed. At that point, Eeoyre had nothing on me. Still, the Patriots are my team. I watch. Maybe, I think, they can score a touchdown or two and it won't look so bad on the score sheet by the end of the game. Deep inside me, the thought was there. I tried to not even think it, as not to jinx it, as if that would make a difference. Had I really turned into one of those guys?

I kept watching because it was half over and I thought... maybe. Just maybe they can put up a fight and come back. Wouldn't that be something? All of those fans that left early because it was a blowout, the ones who'll lie and claim they stayed the whole time if they did come back and win. They'd miss a chance at history. Don't get me wrong, it's one game. It doesn't mean much of anything, except it does. If these guys can take the kind of beating they did in the first half and come out and turn it around, that means something. It means they have all of those cliches you hear at the press conferences about character and leadership and resilience. Doesn't matter, can't happen. Won't happen. Probably won't happen. Wouldn't it be amazing, though, if it did?

It did. No other way to explain this. 

We all know now that is exactly what happened. They came out of the locker room after halftime and played incredibly. One play at a time, they strung together offensive drives, scoring 21 points in the third quarter alone. Took the lead, won in overtime. 73 minutes and 4 seconds of football later, there it was. History. The biggest comeback in New England Patriots history. I had doubts that they'd even win before the game started. I was never so glad to be wrong.

This is why you never leave a game early. I never have and I never will. You don't know what could happen, and unless you are watching, you'll miss it. Watching the highlights instead, it's just not the same. Sure, you'll see what happened, but you won't feel like this:

I'm not even sure what this is, to be honest.