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Professional Grade Football

In the interest of full disclosure, let me start this sports post by saying that I am not particularly a fan of either the Indianapolis Colts or the New England Patriots. I am a fan of some of the individual players these two teams have, but not of the teams themselves. In fact, having been raised a (division opponent) Buffalo Bills fan, I hate the Pats. I don't think that has any impact on the way I view today's game, but maybe it does.

We've heard so much about this game already… what can I say to add to the hype? How about this - it's the first time teams better than 6-0 have met in NFL history. It's something special.

But let’s be honest… the real hype here is because the Patriots have been absolutely steamrolling every team they encounter, and people want to know how long that will last and how ugly it will be. Tom Brady has already passed for 30 touchdowns this season. That’s a personal record and we’re only halfway through the season. Nobody else in the league has more than 17 right now. Randy Moss leads the league in touchdowns and yards, and teammate Wes Welker isn’t far behind him in either category. Can they go unbeaten, win the Superbowl, and make Bill Belichick look like more of a genius than a cheater? Here is a great article from the beginning of the season, highlighting what many believe later became the Pats motivation for the season:

The shame that Bill Belichick suffers is worse than any penalty. He cheated the game of football, tarnishing the one thing he seems to care for. His genius and his victories alike will forever be suspect.

I’ve been trying to get in touch with my friend and co-blogger G-Dawg so we could talk about the accusation that the Patriots unnecessarily run up the score on opponents, embarrassing them in a most unsportsmanlike manner. The NY Daily News sees a connection:

Last week, Belichick embarrassed Joe Gibbs first by leaving Tom Brady in with a 38-0 lead in the fourth quarter and then calling for a quarterback sneak on fourth down inside the Redskins 10 that led to another TD. Later with backup Matt Cassel in for Brady, the classy Belichick went for it on fourth-and-2 from the Redskins 37. Cassel completed a 21-yard pass, setting up the TD that made it 52-0.

"What do you want us to do, kick a field goal?" Belichick asked.

Belichick is showing a lack of respect for the game and the opponent. But what do you expect? The guy got caught cheating.

But before we read too much into Belichick’s motives, let’s consider the question he posed to reporters. "What do you want us to do, kick a field goal?"

Listening to Washington Redskins Hall-of-Fame running back John Riggins’ radio show this week, I heard an interesting point of view. Riggins notes that kicking a field goal would be running up the score – putting more points on the board for the sake of doing so, when the game was out of reach. That’s not what the Patriots did. They instead ran the ball – in fact, a play that Riggins described on the air as “an essentially stoppable play”, basically quarterback off-center, just asking the Redskins to step up to the challenge and stop Tom Brady (not the fullback!) as he ran the ball. The Skins couldn’t do it, and the Pats put the ball in the end zone without any fourth-quarter long sideline bombs. There was no attempt to embarrass, in my opinion, and I’ve heard several current Redskins players say the exact same thing in interviews this week.

I’d like to get some feedback on another point Riggins made on his show. If the Redskins considered the game over and lost in the fourth quarter, why did they keep their starters in? Why would they risk injury to Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis, or Chris Cooley? Why wouldn’t they put in their second string and give their studs a break in a meaningless fourth quarter? Riggins maintains that the Patriots are under absolutely no obligation to pull their starters before the Skins do, and I think he makes an excellent point. So long as the starters are in, the Skins are playing for real, and we all know that any team of professionals can, at any time, put up multiple scores in very little time. The sporting thing to do in that situation is to take your opponent seriously, even when they are down, and even because they are down. Keep your guard up. Score again. Seal the deal. In fact, notes Riggins, that's exactly what Joe Gibbs used to do when he and "Diesel" Riggins were dominating the league a quarter century ago.

It’s almost kickoff for the Pats/Colts game, so let me wrap up this post and officially get my prediction out there. New England will win this game by at least two scores. This will happen because the Colts don't have to win this game, but the Pats do. If the game is closer than that and it goes down to the last minutes, or if the Colts were to win this game (which they are capable of), then it is very damaging to the Patriots and their confidence. It is not damaging to the Colts if they lose, say 38-17, in my opinion. These two teams will meet again later this year, in the AFC championship game, where they are both fixtures and when it really matters. That’s the game I am looking forward to.