Pribek

I have not been much interested in football this year. Don’t know why, it may be because I don’t own a T.V. With baseball, I can get a feel for what’s going on from day to day by following the box scores. Football isn’t as much of a numbers game, you need to watch it to get into it.

Tonight though, I’m going down to P.T.’s palatial estate to watch the big game. The huge game. The most important football contest in the history of mankind. from the N.Y. Times...

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ pristine run through this National Football League season has drawn increasing scrutiny for two months, building to Saturday night’s regular-season finale against the Giants. Interest in the game, which could complete for the Patriots the first 16-0 regular season in N.F.L. history, has prompted an unprecedented national triplecast by television networks and a flurry of ticket scalping.

For the first time ever, a network triplecast? For a regular season game. A game, in which, both teams will be going on to the playoffs, win or lose. A game, in which, the underdog New York Football Giants probably won’t even be playing their starters for fear that they might get hurt.

Yeah, I know that New England (By the way, I’ve always hated that-”New England”. Football teams don’t come from “New England”. A mahogany, Hepplewhite Sideboard that makes the Keno brothers all giddy, that comes from New England.) is going for a 16-0 regular season record and that’s big news. It’s a big deal but, the Patriots could still choke in the playoffs. I’m not going to be surprised if they tank against Indy or if Ben Rothlesberger plays over his head.

Right now, the Patriots are a two touchdown favorite. That’s a big, big point spread for an N.F.L. game. So, nobody gives the Giants a ghost of a chance. If they won, it would go down as one of biggest upsets in history. But, like I said, the word is that they will be playing the scrubs early. So, the only reason to watch is the historical importance. And, that is a big deal. But, why is it this big a deal. Why a network “triplecast”.

Here’s why:

That’s right it’s that damn Dolphin.

I have some vivid recollections of the Miami Dolphins perfect season in 1972. Mostly, as soon as the “Fish” were getting close to an undefeated season, kids at my elementary school started sporting Dolphins gear. Throughout the playoffs and the Super Bowl, this sudden wave of superficial fandom grew by leaps and bounds. By the next year’s opening day assembly, the rank and file were awash in a sea of orange and teal and, everywhere that damn, stupid looking Dolphin with a football helmet. At eight years old, that Dolphin became a symbol of pretense, opportunism. The Dolphin was, to me, an identifying mark of someone who would be a fair weather friend, someone who was untrustworthy-a front runner. That may seem unfair but, know this; This was in Nebraska and until about week ten of the ‘72 season, there were no Dolphins to be seen anywhere on the playground. You would see Bears, Chiefs, Vikings, Cardinals, even the odd Green Bay G, or the later on, equally hated, Dallas star (for this was before all of that “America’s Team” jive) but, absolutely, no Dolphins.

Those Dolphins were everywhere, Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka had a best selling book. Clean cut, model citizen Bob Griese was on every magazine, an icon of conformity. And the “greatest”, “wisest”, red assed football coach of all-time, Don Shula was constantly being hailed as a genius.

Let me ask you something; How much of a genius could this guy be if, he had Dan Marino for 16 seasons and he couldn’t figure out how to win the big one?

Anyway, if these guys would have just taken their rewards and faded into the scenery, things would have been A-O.K. But no, for about the last 25 years or so, any time a team won 8 or 9 games to start the season, these old farts have been spotted rooting for the other team. We have seen guys like Jake Scott, Mercury Morris, Csonka, Kiick, Marv Fleming having a beer up in the press box or, in some bar somewhere, or on some golf course celebrating the fact that an undefeated team falls by the wayside. They have always played it down, saying that they weren’t rooting for a team to lose, just paying tribute to their own accomplishment and enjoying camaraderie. But, there they are popping a cork when an undefeated team loses, every time.

It isn’t cute, it never has been and it isn’t right. It is the epitome of bad sportsmanship. I would say that it’s human nature to not want to see an accomplishment, a record you were a part of setting, being surpassed. I would even say that it’s natural to be happy about someone else not being able to best what you’ve done. But, it is horseshit to make a public spectacle out of it. And there they’ve been, grinning and toasting every year.

Now, this morning, I’m looking through the press coverage and, to my surprise, all that I find is sympathy for these bitter, old, bad sports. I even saw a couple of things that talked about how much card-show income the ‘72 Dolphins will lose if the Patriots win out. I have seen guys saying that the Patriots will be destroying these geezers “retirement accounts”.

Look, if the members of the ‘72 Dolphins have been able to make a living by signing autographs it is partly because they have been on T.V., partying every year when the last team falls. They have been promoting; that’s all.

So, regardless of how the announcers fob it off tonight, the story is the ‘72 Dolphins-not the Patriots.

That’s why I will be watching. If I don’t see Larry Csonka enjoying a few Miller Lites; if I don’t see Don Shula, via satellite, trying to act like he isn’t pissed, if I don’t see Mercury Morris anywhere around then, they are cowards. They should all be there in New York tonight. The legend of that damn Dolphin is at stake. And, if the Giants pull off a miracle, then, I guess the legend will grow.

UPDATE:12/30

Like I said yesterday, I haven’t watched much football at all this year. I truly expected last night’s game to be a yawner. It turned out to be a highly entertaining game. The Giants did not pull their key players as a lot of people were predicting and they played hard. I was watching with my buddy P.T., an ex-lineman that has played at the N.F.L. level. He always has some insight that the announcers rarely touch. One thing he said, early in the third quarter when the Patriots were down by 12 was; “You can’t count the Patriots out because they will play at a higher level, longer, they will wear them down”. Shortly after he said it, Randy Moss dropped a ball on a long route; he was wide open. The next play, he ran the same long route and caught the ball for a touchdown. Pat said; “That’s what I mean, people don’t realize how hard it is to even run that route twice in a row”.

Eli Manning was better than advertised and the Giants showed a lot of salt.

As for the ‘72 Dolphins; They were conspicuously absent. No shots of the grumpy old men from the press box, golf course or bar. Bryant Gumble made one quick reference, as the Patriots came alive. Something to the effect of; “Don’t take the Champagne off the ice just yet, down in Miami”.

I think the geezers had been feeling some backlash and made an effort to remain out of the fray. This morning there were congratulatory statements issued by most of the ‘72 crew that were all very carefully worded and pleasant.

Well almost all of them, Bob Kuechenberg did step up to the plate a little. From Boston.com…

“They’ve done a heck of a job thus far but now the exhibition season is over and the real season begins,” he said.

“Obviously, if they can win their first playoff game, beat an even more dangerous Colts team, and then Brett Favre or the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl, I will be the first to take my hat off to them. If they can pull it off, they will have earned it.

“But my heart is dead set against it. The ‘72 team is uniquely immortal in American sports and I don’t want us to lose that special place.”

So, according to Kuch at least, the legend continues……..