Elfdart wrote:But unlike other institutions, pro football features overgrown juvenile delinquents beating the shit out of each other and resorting to underhanded tactics to win. The patron saint of the sport, whose name adorns the championship trophy said "Winning isn't everything -it's the only thing".
The NFL sells videos of the dirtiest players and the biggest cheats, for fuck's sake. You're a Dolphin fan: Do you remember (whether personally or from those who watched it) when Miami was playing the Patriots in Foxboro during a snowstorm and the Pats sent a convict on work release to hop on a snowplough to clear off an area so Tony Franklin could kick the winning field goal? Don Shula squealed like a stuck pig, but did the league do much of anything? As much as they might pretend to dislike this kind of thing (and I hated it when my team got screwed by the Holy Roller), overall it's good for the game.
And I'm sure that the NFL is going to get bigger and make more money by selling videos of the Patriot's handicam-man.
If you're going to appeal to the popularity of cheating [sic], then at least have the decency to realize that this isn't a form of cheating that is going to be remotely popular with fans or with the press.
Elftard wrote:Hey asshole, try reading what I actually wrote for a change. I don't condone cheating, but I understand that part of the game's appeal is the on-field hoodlum behavior and the dirty tricks, so the league is not exactly eager to crack down on it.
But dirty plays, "hoodlum behavior" and "dirty tricks" are punished by the League. Your bullshit is readily apparent by things like the crackdown on off-field behavior last season and the elimination of unnecessary celebrations, which the League apparently considered "hoodlum behavior" and didn't consider part of the game, even though prancing around with props after a touchdown is clearly more popular among fans than having teams videotape each others' coaches.
Players still cheapshot one another (remember the Sav Rocca video?).
And they're punished for that. They're subjected to fines, penalties, and even suspensions for such actions.
Coaches still sign players waived by upcoming opponents on the off chance that the cut player managed to sneak out with his playbook, or just to pump them for inside dirt.
Which isn't cheating, according to the NFL. This is in no way similar to what the Patriots are doing.
There is still all kinds of skullduggery and even though it's dastardly and underhanded, you know what? Suddenly I'm actually interested in watching the Jets and Patriots play again later this season -something I didn't give a hoot in hell about before this came up. A bigger blight on the game is a team that lost by 24 points crying like little bitches about how the other team cheated.
No such defense is ever offered for athletes, like Barry Bonds, who cheat and win like crazy. Instead, all you hear about "cheaters" like that is how they dishonor the game of baseball. We hear the same thing about people who use steroids in the NFL, albeit to a much lesser extent. What the Patriots did is blatant cheating, and while it may not have impacted the outcome of this particular game, it may well have impacted the outcomes of numerous Patriots games in the past--indeed, EVERY close game that the Patriots played in recent memory could conceivably be tainted by the scandal, and that's clearly detrimental to the League.