An NFL coach is the hot topic of
conversation du jour for stating that certain championships have a
stain on them. He's done lots of backpedalling since in an attempt to
avoid the heinous crime of disrespecting an opponent and I
think that is unfortunate. Mostly because I think he's right. The
championships he was referring to are the New England and New Orleans
Superbowl victories. The stain he referred to comes from both teams
being sanctioned by the league for systematically breaking the rules
during the periods they won their championships.
A lot of the talking heads focus the
debate how much value or competitive advantage, if any, was gained
from the forms of cheating they did and the fans of the teams always
rest on the cheaters' eternal claim – that everybody cheats. Well,
everybody doesn't cheat.
Philosophically my problem with
cheating in sports comes from the fact that sports are silly to begin
with. People agree on an arbitrary set of limitations and objectives
and compete to achieve the objectives within the outlined
constraints. In that sense to cheat is simply to privately admit
defeat. Cheating is admitting to yourself that you don't think you
can achieve the objective within the agreed constraints – admitting
that you think our opponent(s) is (are) better than you. In
recreational sports this is the height of pathetic.
In pro sports it is unfortunately
understandable but I still object to cheating in the pros for two
reasons. The first reason is because, like it or not, the pros are
role models for other athletes so when they cheat it encourages
cheating at all levels of sport. The second reason is the reason that cheating in the pros is understandable - because professional
sports is all about the money and I don't like to be reminded of
that.
One last problem with cheating is the
result. Now some people will say “hey, they won” that's what it's
all about. But really, for the reason I outlined above they didn't
really win and when your talking about the kind of questionable
advantage cheating these teams were engaged in you can only wonder,
could they have won fair and square? I'll never know, you'll never
know, and they themselves will never know if they really could have
been the best playing by the rules.
That's the stain and cover it, conceal
it or ignore it but it's still there.
1 comment:
Well said, sir! I was almost gleeful when I heard of Coach Harbaugh's commentary. I was so glad that someone within the system had finally spoken out. the backpedalling diminishes my joy only slightly. What was said cannot be unsaid.
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