Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Preparing sour grapes for harvest

Don Shula was a great coach. But I think he needs to stick to running his restaurants.

His comparing the Patriots spygate to Bond's steroid use is way off and clearly only meant to preserve his 1972 team's claims to greatest team ever.

The Patriots have not done anything since week 1 and there is doubt they did anything in that game to benefit them in that game. Credible speculation is that the filming was scouting for future games. And if they win out, they'll go 19-0. Miami only went 17-0.

If the Patriots or any team ever goes undefeated, their achievement will be more significant than the Dolphins because they will have won more games. The talk I've heard has always been that if a team goes undefeated, the only way the '72 Dolphins stay in the conversation is with an asterisk and note indicating they played fewer games. So maybe Shula is trying a preemptive strike.

Shula is probably still sore there was talk of the Patriots having outdone the '72 Dolphins by winning 21 straight NFL contests in 2003-04. "They weren't all in one season" they whined.

The claim that the '72 Dolphin team is the best ever is not even a lock. Great accomplishment, but many put them behind the '85 Bears, one of the Patriot teams or entries from San Francisco, Pittsburgh or Dallas.

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