Tuesday, November 6, 2007
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.
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5 comments:
I agree with you in saying that Shula is wrong in saying the Patriots winning out the season won't mean anything because of the taping scandal. It wasn't like they do this every game, I mean they beat the Colts without using a camera so that has to account for something. Comparing them to Barry Bonds is also completely wrong because the situations are so different. I would just say that Shula is a sore loser and can't handle the Patriots winning out.
Matt, I also agree that Shula's comments were wrong. His time has come and gone and needs to move on. It reminds me of the situation where Alabama no longer wanted his son to coach. They wanted Saban and Shula did all he could to bash him. Shula said Saban was a liar and was unfaithful to the Dolphins. Even though this is an example of a father sticking up for his son his comments were not needed. Every year the Patriots and the Colts seem to be on the brink of this record. The Dolphins players always have something to say and are selfish in that they want to be the only team that does it. Records are made to be broken and one day it might happen so I think they should just accept that it might and move on. It was a great accomplishment, but I don't think it is that big of a deal.
Matt, I agree with your post. I’ll admit that I was a big Don Shula fan when I was younger. Heck, I can admit that I even cried when he retired because I loved his coaching so much. But as of late I find Shula to be a little extreme in his comments. The Barry Bonds issue is totally unrelated to what the Patriot did. I agree that what the Patriots did was dirty and was appropriately punished, but the effects should go no further than they already did. I agree that Shula is obviously stirring the pot just to cause an uproar and get people to turn on the Pats. If anything, this will gain back support for the Pats, as Shula has now made a ridiculous comment against them that people will oppose. I love Shula to death, but he needs to stop making stupid comments and realize that someday soon his record will be matched and overtaken.
I agree with you on this one Demosky. Shula is wrong in saying the Patriots winning out the season won't mean anything because of the taping scandal. Comparing them to Barry Bonds is also completely wrong because the situations are so different. Records are made to be broken and one day it might happen so I think they should just accept that it might and move on. Shula is obviously stirring the pot just to cause uproar and get people to turn on the Pats. He needs to stop making stupid comments and realize that someday his team’s record will be beat and he is going to have to respect whatever team does it.
I also agree with you because these are two completely different situations and just cannot be compared to each other. I think yes it was bad that they cheated but it wasn't like they have done it every week as far as we know. Barry Bonds cheating is the huge controversy in baseball and is never forgotten. Where this scandal happened once and was really forgotten about after a couple of weeks. Again you just can't compare these two.
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