As the sports world knows - and the rest of the inhabited world will learn over the coming weeks - the New England Patriots are undefeated and potential unstoppable. They may become the first team in the National Football League to go undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
The Patriots are also the team that was penalized earlier this year for cheating.
Into this steps Don Shula, legendary coach of those 1972 Dolphins.
Don Shula likes the Patriots' chances of going undefeated, but the Bill Belichick-inspired spying scandal has clouded Shula's thinking when comparing New England with his unbeaten 1972 Dolphins team."The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished," Shula said in an interview with the New York Daily News. "You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it."
Belichick was fined $500,000 and the Patriots were fined $250,000 and lost a first-round draft pick for videotaping the Jets' opposing sideline during the teams' season-opening game.
"That tells you the seriousness or significance of what they found," Shula said, according to the Daily News. "I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record.
Shula is right. No matter what the Patriots achieve this year there must be an * next to it. They are cheaters. This is not a subjective statement. It is objective, proven truth. Did they need to cheat to win? It certainly doesn't seem that way. That doesn't matter. They are cheaters. Do other teams do what they did? Maybe. That doesn't matter. They are cheaters.
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Interesting this, coming from a "Christian" website. Well then, maybe you should have a look at this:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-jimlitke-110707&prov=ap&type=lgns
"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished," the retired Hall of Fame coach told the New York Daily News. "You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it."
If Shula believes that, then he ought to negotiate a two-fer and paste the other asterisk next to his own undefeated team.
He was still the coach of the Baltimore Colts at the end of the 1969 season, when then-Miami owner Joe Robbie approached him and signed Shula to a contract. The NFL charged the Dolphins with tampering and awarded their first-round pick to the Colts. Undaunted, Miami reached the Super Bowl in 1971, then rebounded from a loss to the Dallas Cowboys by winning the next two, including the perfect 17-0 campaign.
Seeing as how this is a Christian website, perhaps you should point Coach Shula towards Matthew 7:1,2
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Well said.
aquaman:
You're right in that Hank Aaron communicated more disapproval in his silence about Barry Bonds (even while taking the high road) than Shula did in his open criticism.
That said, I was screaming at the TV too on Sunday when the Patriots came back. (Although it is amazing to see Brady rise to Montana-like heights, in the regular season as well as the playoffs, now that he has a Pro Bowl-caliber receiving corps for the first time in his life.)
I was speaking with a dear friend just yesterday -- who had an odd experience meeting a college basketball coach, having felt slighted by him somehow despite his politeness -- about how solipsistic coaches in general, from Pop Warner and middle school to the pros, tend to be.
Belichick in particular appears to have a moral blind spot the size of Gillette Stadium. (Not just for the spying, but in his disdainful, I-can't-be-bothered treatment of pretty much anyone he comes in contact with.)
He could learn a lesson from the ultraclassy guy (and fellow Super Bowl winner) whose team he beat on Sunday, Tony Dungy. But he probably won't.
The only pro football team you should keep above suspicion, David, is the one from New Orleans :-D
I used to feel that way about Dungy, too, Larry Parker, 'til he decided to get involved in politics solely in order to fight against the dread gay menace.
But the guy sure can design a defense.
Elvis:
I didn't like Dungy speaking at that anti-gay event either. But I'm willing to forgive him a mistake, because none of us are perfect, and the rest of his career has been so remarkably dignified (oh, and successful, too).
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