Rooting for the "Bad Guys"

The day after one of the best days in Boston sports history, and there are millions of things to discuss. The remarkable seven game run for the BoSox is best summarized by the Sports Guy column today so no need to rehash. Lester’s unbelievable personal story overcoming cancer to pitch 5 2/3 stellar innings in a World Series clincher is the type of story that true journalists should focus on, but only Peter Gammons seems to really grasp the magnitude. Mike Lowell capping off an amazing, team MVP season with the World Series honorary equivalent is nice, but anyone of a handful of the BoSox could have won the award (Papelbon, Ellsbury to name two). No, those stories do not reach the necessary magnitude for a posting on the day following one of the happiest baseball memories of my lifetime. In fact, the entire sport of baseball will play second fiddle today to the world of capitalist economics.

Yesterday, the “other” New England sports dynamo, the New England Patriots, continued their total annihilation of the NFL by destroying their (allegedly) stiffest defensive competition to date 52-7. However, the stories following the game did not focus on the Patriots ridiculous 34 first downs, 5 more Brady TDs (2 rushing!!), or the insane all around game of Mike Vrabel. Nope, economic politics has finally reared its ugly head in the world of sports journalism this year. Instead, the socialist media decided to talk about how the capitalistic Patriots are running up the score on opponents.

I don’t know what’s more ridiculous – this being viewed as a “legitimate” topic for NFL journalists (who never seemed to care when Manning was passing for scores, up by 5 TDs against the Lions on his way to 49 TDs, but whatever), or NFL players whining about a beatdown.

First off, these are professional athletes, meaning it is their job to either (1) score; or (2) stop someone from scoring. If you can’t do your damn job, deal with it. Apparently we have too many people who hate the likes of Microsoft writing NFL articles and playing for NFL teams because the Patriots monopoly on complete destruction of opponents is apparently the newest flaw the media and opponents will try to impart on the Pats. As a fan, please, by all means, keep doing it – we like the Pats a little angry.

Second, the nonsensical view that you need to “give up” when your team is up by 30 points is absurd. If the Pats took out their starters when they got up by four touchdowns every game, Brady & Co. would barely play a half. This certainly doesn’t translate well to keeping everyone sharp when they play a team that can actually compete, i.e. the Colts. Granted, having Brady in the fourth quarter is a significant (and admittedly dumb) risk, where it only takes one renegade sore loser to take out his knee and ruin the Pats season. But where is the whole “respect the game, have pity on thy foe” coming from? You hear players talk about football as a war (in the strictly athletic sense of course…right, Kellen Winslow??), but I’m pretty sure you don’t see generals talking about taking it easy at any point. You play to the final whistle, and if the opponent can’t stop you, battle and grind until the other team waves the white flag.

Last, and most important, the reason the NFL is America’s sport is every team is forced to play within the same salary cap. No $200 million payrolls. No buying championships (at least not without the significant risk of crippling a team for years into the future). Apparently the fact that, unlike the real world economy, the NFL tries to make a socialist environment as much as possible is lost on those feeding information to the sports world. Every team is restricted to construct a team within the same set of parameters. If your front office and coaching staff can’t assemble a roster, and prepare your team, to play within 45 points (!!) of an opponent on this level, quit your bitching and practice harder. Plead to your front office to bring in better players and scout more effectively. Don’t whine about it. Show some pride.

I can’t believe the oversaturated Baby Huey that is the sports media has already run out of story lines on this NFL season that this can topic can have legs. What’s more, if the Pats had, say, kicked field goals yesterday instead of going for it on 4^th day, sportscasters and journalists would still be arguing and writing about the same topic – those big, bad Patriots taking advantage of those little, helpless companies, er, teams.

Oh well, I’ll just sit back and watch my team keeping running up the score, smacking teams up with more “Eff-U” TDs and scorching everyone for doubting the authenticity of their championships. And I’ll love every second rooting for Microsoft.

By the way….did I mention the Red Sox just won the World Series. Life is pretty Friggin good.

SIDE NOTE: Congrats to RJ on getting hitched to a girl who is way out of his league. I just hope her eyesight doesn't come back until she's 70. I hope you name your first kid after me.