I Don't Think so Shula

Don Shula has made a recent comment that links the New England Patriots and Barry Bonds together. The former Miami Dolphin’s head football coach and hall of famer, Shula, stated that he likes the chances of the Patriots to go undefeated this season but questions their comparison to his 1972 Dolphin’s team because of the Bill Belichick-inspired spying scandal. With an interview with the New York Daily News Shula expressed, “The spy gate thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished.” Shula indicated that with the sever penalties and punishments that the Patriots and Bill Belichick suffered from the incident its kind of like the same scenario putting an asterisk next to Barry Bonds’ home run record (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3097057). I personally believe that Shula is just concerned that his NFL record of posting a 16-0 regular season record in 1972 is going to be challenged by the 2007 New England Patriots. There have been numerous NFL teams that have come close to tying the perfect regular season record set by Shula and his ‘72 Dolphin players, but no team who has come close have displayed the dominance that this years Patriot’s have. I don’t think Shula’s statements are even close to being valid. The reason why say this is due to the fact that the spy gate scandal was nipped in the bud the first game of the season. So how does one game diminish a whole season, especially when they played a team that they are far superior than and would have by at least two touchdowns anyway. I understand where Shula is coming from, but I think he went a bit extreme by making these statements. I also disagree with Shula’s comments that compared Barry Bonds and the New England Patriots. The situations are clearly different. Barry Bonds admitted that steroids were present in his body rather on purpose or not, which is a whole other issue. The steroids obviously enhanced Bonds’ performance on the field which helped with his chances of becoming the all time home –run hitter in Major League Baseball. The steroids cannot be taken out of Bonds’ body. The damage, increase strength and conditioning has already been done and put into affect for Bonds. Where as the Patriots situation was handled with immediately and there will be no long term effects of increased performance on the field for them in the future as a result of their one time breaking league rules and cheating. The same cannot be said about Barry Bonds. In my opinion, I believe that Don Shula’s comparison of Bonds and the Patriots is unfair to say the least. I feel it’s possible that Shula is just being bitter towards the Patriots because his regular season wins record that has stood for thirty-five years could be in jeopardy. I also think Shula feels threatened that his ’72 Dolphins greatness may be somewhat forgotten or outshined if the Patriots do in fact go perfect in the regular season.