Posted on 01/14/2008 9:26:18 PM PST by BigJohn44
Don Shula, the coach of that Miami team, wants an asterisk put in the NFL record book if the Pats do go undefeated.
"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished," he said earlier this season. "You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I agree.
I appreciate your enthusiasm -- and the G-Men are the only team left that have a chance. But, unless they allow crutches and gurneys onto the field... the G-Men will fall short.
You posted: I vote for asterisk. Cheating is cheating is cheating.
***
I wonder if any teams(including the undefeated Dolphins team) ever were called for a penalty during a game. Isn’t that cheating, to break the rules intentionally? Or, do coaches coach players on how to break rules without getting caught (e.g., offensive linemen holding without getting caught, or defensive ends interfering with receivers without getting caught)?
I am no real fan of the Patriots, but they were caught and punished, just as all teams are flagged and penalized during games. Is that cheating?
I’m a Steeler fan who does not care for the Pats for obvious reasons. Cheating is not among them. This is their year, good luck and enjoy. We’ll get ya next year.
Congratulations, Barry.
Can't disagree with you, much. The 1976 Steelers (having won back to back SB Trophies) did not go to the SB, but for a stretch they were as defensively dominating as I ever expect to see an NFL team be. That season the Steelers started poorly at 1-4, but then they ran off 9 straight defensive gems to finish 10-4, including 5 shutouts, two games just yielding a single field goal each, and another game giving up just 6 points. They then beat the Colts 40-14 in the first round of playoffs but 1000 yard rusher Franco Harris sustained season ending broken ribs (Rocky Bleier, who also had rushed that season for 1000+ yards, was a scratch for the game due to a broken foot in the regular season). Frenchy Fuqua was ailing and Reggie Harrison was the only healthy running back as they were eliminated in the next game by the Raiders.
" They might be able to beat the Pats but the game has changes so much, become more complex..."
Repeal the Blount Rule!
"... that that that dimwit Bradshaw would be perplexed by todays game."
Terry your proofreader? :-)
” a coach who didnt get caught cheating”
Didn’t get caught. How many might that be? The Pats’ foibles are out in the open.
He apparently missed Shula on MNF during the Pats-Ravens game when he took back that comment and said they shouldn’t have an asterisk.
” They did what they did in the clear open sky. They did not try to hide because I tell you this. There are hunderds of vantage points to have secretly done what they did in the open. The idea that this was cheating is so laughable and all of it is just sour grapes.”
You are right. I hear an awful lot of sour grapes out there.
Like a coin has two sides, so does cheating. You'll always have those willing to cheat. The more important things are having those who detect and report the cheating when it occurs and then having those who properly rebuke the cheaters. After "years of cheating" what happened to those kind of men? What did everybody fall asleep? Did every make assumptions? Did everybody just take for granted? Weren't revenues and salaries increasing like gangbusters? I mean, why rock the boat, eh?
LOL!
No, Coach Shula, an asterisk is not rebuke. Banning a team from the playoffs is.
When great coaches they Mr. Shula propose ball-less penalities like wee little stars printed in the record books, we'll end up with considerably more cheating.
What a great example for the rest of society! Every felon convicted of fraud with get a wee little asterisk in his FaceBook and Wikipedia entries!
"Cheating" is a part of the game.
“He (Shula)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.”
The Dolphins cheated to get Shula. Put asterisks next to their wins.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-jimlitke-110707&prov=ap&type=lgns
“Name a coach and NFL team caught cheating and then forced to give up a first-round pick, only to gain a measure of revenge by roughing up an opponent or two en route to a perfect season and a Super Bowl title.”
How about Don Shula’s 1972 Miami Dolphins?
I am just hoping that the Pats will go undefeated so that I can be spared the haughtyness of the Dolphins team that trots out everytime someone goes 9-0 in the damn league. Mercury Morris has to be the worst.
Did you know that if the grass field heating system did not fail on that December 1967 day, we would never have gotten the "Frozen Tundra" moniker? Even though we had that snowstorm last Saturday, the field never froze over because of the current field heating system.
“The Dolphins cheated to get Shula”
I’m trying to understand how this means Shula cheated at all, much less for the big winning season.
Someone commented that all Pat’s Super Bowls are tainted by something that happened in the first game this year. Just drawing a comparison (maybe a poor one.)
Shula broke league rules by agreeing to a contract while still under contract to another team. Breach of contract possibilities aside, according to some of the logic used here, breaking a rule is cheating. Shula and the Dolphins broke league rules, were fined, lost a first round draft pick...therefore they cheated. Would the Dolphins have won their SBs if they had not cheated to get Shula?
One other thing about the ‘72 Dolphins, they went unbeaten with their starting QB out for most of the season.
Could the Pats have gone unbeaten without Tom Brady? I don’t think so.
Sorry, even then, it doesn’t cut it! He didn’t directly cheat to get any edge, nor was it the correct season in question.
Good point. Good ol’ Earl Morrall, right? :D
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