The past few weeks have been busy, but I had some time to collect my sporting thoughts while standing in a long line with other husbands and boyfriends at the Hallmark store this week.
The New York Giants shocked the professional football world — as well as the sports gambling industry — by defeating the previously undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
So, what did the game teach us?
• Eli Manning is a good quarterback. His playoff performances were clutch, a sign that maybe he has taken his game to the next level, and his game-winning drive was the defining moment of his young career. But, the youngest Manning is not an elite signal-caller yet, despite what some morons on television have said. Eli played four good games in a row. Elite QBs do it all season, year after year. Manning has taken the first steps, but he has a long way to go.
• New England had better team even though the Giants took home the shiny, silver football. No team in the history of professional football had ever complied an 18-0 record. Despite losing the final game, the 2007 Patriots should be in the conversation for greatest teams of all time.
• Sean Salisbury is a moron, and he is on television. The talking head from ESPN said with a straight face that Manning is now an elite QB because he won a Super Bowl, and the Patriots can’t be considered one of the greatest teams of all time. The theory goes that former players make good commentators because they have a unique insight and special knowledge of the game. If that’s true, how does Salisbury still have a job?
• The 1972 Dolphins are a pathetic group of elderly men. Mercury Morris actually admitted to crying when Plexico Burress caught the game-winning touchdown, thus ensuring that he and his Dolphin teammates would remain the only team to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl in NFL History. What the Dolphins did 35 years ago was an amazing accomplishment, but I still think the 2007 Patriots were a better team.
• Karma really does come back to bite people in the butt, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy than Bill Bellicick.
••••
I believe Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. I don’t believe it can be proven in a court of law, and I’m not sure that it changes my opinion that he’s the greatest pitcher of this generation and one of the greatest of all time.
At some point, a person has to trust their gut instinct, and mine says Clemens is guilty. Nothing Brian McNamee or Andy Pettitte said factors into my decision. I believe Clemens was one of hundreds if not thousands of players who lived and worked in a culture where winning at all cost was expected and the use of illegal drugs was accepted. It does not appear that steroid use was an ethical issue for most players. The few who have admitted guilt have not expressed remorse, instead saying they did it to help their team.
I believe the players, the owners, the agents, the general managers, the commissioner and the fans are to blame for allowing it to happen, which is why I felt conflicted this week watching Clemens sit before Congress and argue his innocence. The fatal flaw of the Mitchell Report was its inability to give a complete accounting of the steroid era. So, while Clemens — guilty or not — has his image suffer permanent damage, untold hundreds of others are getting a free pass.
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2 comments:
What, no take on the General stepping down. I could have even given you a picture to use for that one.
you gotta be kiddin' me. you don't like sean salisbury. he is one of the most knowledgeable guys in the business. he is on espn radio at night a lot and is very entertaining. to each their own. maybe alabammy has skewed you a little.
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