We're approaching the halfway point in the National Football League regular season, and already some teams seem to have thrown in the towel and given up after disappointing starts. The Indianapolis Colts, with their franchise quarterback Peyton Manning out of action recovering from neck surgery for possibly the entire season, and the Miami Dolphins, full of excuses for their typically substandard play, are the last two winless teams left in the league. The prize for being the absolutely worst team at season's end? Only possibly the best quarterback to come out of college since Manning, namely Stanford's Andrew Luck. So instead of trying to recover some dignity for themselves and doing what they can to salvage a few wins in the season's second half, I see these two franchises essentially giving up and looking for next year to change. And to me as a fan, I consider that to be a monumental rip-off, as well as a challenge to the integrity of the game. In each game, the two sides should ALWAYS play to win to their utmost ability. But this isn't the only scenario where the game's integrity has been soiled...
A couple of years ago, the Indianapolis Colts seemed destined for NFL history as the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to run through the whole season undefeated. They were within reach of an unblemished regular season when they played the New York Jets in one of the last games. The game was close in the first half, but the Colts' coach decided to bench Manning to "save" him for the playoffs. This gave the Jets the opportunity to come back and win the game. If you're a Colts fan, you're angry at the lost opportunity for a perfect season. If you're a Jets fan, you're angry because their victory was cheapened with Manning's absence. And if you're a fan in general, you're angry because that year the Jets backed into the playoffs over other teams, simply by dint of that "gift" victory.
Sometimes, if a team feels it is still in the running for the playoffs and they need a player at a certain position, they make trades to strengthen themselves. Thus the Oakland Raiders recently picked up quarterback Carson Palmer from Cincinnati to fill in a void created by an injury. But teams like Indianapolis and Miami, after a few losses put them behind in the standings, have apparently decided to sit on their hands for the remainder of the season and do very little to improve themselves. As a Dolphins fan, I feel cheated and offended. Why should I follow them at all??!!
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Inexplicably, my middle son is a Dolphins fan. He's pretty disappointed so far.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that teams pay a price in terms of lost revenues when suddenly nobody watches the games, buys stuff and in general lets the franchise know they're mad.
I hate to be cynical, but I have to guess that whatever impact such fan impatience has, it is less important to the owners than getting a better draft pick. Whatever the case, I think we can count on them doing whatever it is they think they should do in order to make more money.
I hated the Colts for that "loss" and I think any coach who accepts anything less than 100% effort all the time from all their players are cheating both the fans as well as the athletes. Indy got their reward anyway - a sound pummeling in the SB. Too smart by half. Or maybe a quarter.
On the other hand, Miami used its top draft choice after the dismal 1-15 2007 season to choose...an offensive lineman. I expect no better this time around, because, well, they're TOO SMART!
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