Those who know me, know that I'm not a huge sports person. I don't follow any of the major sports, so it's a rare day that I'll actually watch a game on TV. About the closest I get to following anything is the Seattle Mariners, mostly because I like going to a few games each year at Safeco with friends and family. But even then, I don't tend to follow the whole season unless they do something spectatular like make the playoffs or something.
Anyway, Super Bowl is one of the few days where I give in to sports frenzy and actually watch a football game. Usually this consists of being mildly interested in the game, more interested in the commercials, and using the majority of the time to catch up on some serious napping. But, I digress.
Tonight, L. and I watched the NY Giants and the NE Patriots play the Super Bowl. I missed the majority of the game due to a bad headache, which led me to taking some Naproxin Sodium and a long nap. But I woke up for the last few minutes of the game and watched the amazing comeback of the Giants. Now, I didn't really have any preference in which team actually won this game. The only familiar player was Peyton Manning's brother of the NY Giants, and the only reason I know who Peyton Manning is is because of last year's Super Bowl. So, I watched the end of the game tonight and was absoultely astounded when the Pats head coach, Bill Belichick, actually left the game before it was technically done. And then the rest of the Pats just headed back into the locker rooms with their tails between their legs. No shaking of hands, or half-hearted congratulations to the winners. Nothing.
Now, I'm not saying that the Pats shouldn't be disappointed. They had an undefeated season and they lost the Super Bowl. But at least they made it to the Super Bowl in the first place. And come on guys - it's called sportsmanship! You don't just crawl away like a bunch of infants. Maybe Huggies diapers should sponser their team in the future. Even though I wasn't actually rooting for one team or the other, I was glad in the end that the Giants won. Because the Patriots showed themselves to be the true losers. Not because they lost the Super Bowl, but because their head coach and the team demonstrated such poor sportsmanship.
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4 comments:
I hate to defend the Patriots, but there was a lot of confusion there at the end of the game. Everyone thought time had expired, so they all came out on the field to shake hands and offer congratulations. Then the referees pointed out that there was still one second left---I blame the timeskeeper for not watching the clock more carefully on the last play---and the NFL officials ruled that a play had to be run. So the refs had to get all the nonplayers off the field, but by that time a lot of people were already heading to the locker room. They might not have heard the announcement about the last play until they were in the locker room, and by then it was too late.
From what I saw most of the good sportsmanship show had already occurred, and even if Belichick knew there was one second left, what would be the point of him coming back on to the field for what was really just a formality?
Granted there was confusion at the end of the game, but I didn't see Belichick and the Patriots head onto the field to congratulate the Giants even before all of the non- players were called back off of the field. I don't think that their poor sportsmanship was due to the confusion, but maybe that's just me. Perhaps I'm just used to baseball, where the players walk through and shake everyone's hands at the end.
Based on past games, the main coaches and star players will congratulate each other (albeit briefly) before calling it a day. I think a few Patsies did, but it looked like many did not. The "1 second left" silliness could have been avoided, though. And I trust Bill's ugly red poncho was tossed in the dumpster with the unused Pats Championship caps.
I'm glad the Pats lost and their actions come as no surprise to me given the fact that they cheated during the regular season to get where they were (they were actually convicted of this by the NFL). Their entire season is tainted as a result, IMO. I'm glad that a team who truly earned their way to the Super Bowl won.
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