Is New England's Loss Good for the NFL?
The Patriots' loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl the other day might have been a blessing in disguise for the NFL. I don't think it made a difference in the (stellar) ratings, but from an image standpoint. A New England win would have brought more attention to SpyGate, and if any of the recent allegations are true, it would be a black eye for the sport.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sick of hearing about SpyGate. In fact, I'm sick of hearing the term "SpyGate." So from here on out, I'll refer to the incident as The Belichick Ultimatum (TBU). I listened to Senator Arlen Specter's interview on Mike & Mike and I'm convinced that he's simply a) grandstanding to get his name in the news (trying to appeal to voters in Pennsylvania), and b) kowtowing to his biggest campaign contributor, Comcast. I mean, why does congress care if teams steal signals? Don't they have bigger things to worry about?
That said, TBU is a big deal for The League. The NFL investigated the cheating allegations back in September, and they found enough evidence to fine Belichick and New England $750,000 and a first-round draft pick. That's not exactly small potatoes, there. The fine was so big because the Jets game wasn't the first incident on record, it was merely the first publicized incident. Belichick and company were caught taping signals before and received a stern warning from the league. (Got that? A stern warning.) Yet they arrogantly continued to defy the league's order and videotaped Jets coaches on the sidelines in week one. Roger Goodell was forced to levy the fine. The penalty is so huge that I'm convinced there was more evidence of cheating than a simple VHS tape.
Enter Matt Walsh, Patriot videographer from 1996 to 2003. He supposedly has evidence of the team cheating for years. New England supposedly even taped the Rams final walk-through before Super Bowl XXXVI, a game the heavy underdog Patriots of course won.
Does videotape of your opponents practice even help you win? That's not for me to say, but it surely can't hurt (unless the opponent knew they were being taped and slipped in some subterfuge, Greg Brady style.) It also could very well be the key to the entire Belichick era. You know, three titles in five years. I do know that it'll really make you think twice when you hear a losing player say, "it's like they knew what plays we were running."
Other teams have stolen signals, of course. It's been happening since the dawn of the NFL 85 years ago. No one has been as egregious as the Patriots, though, as no other team has warranted such a stiff penalty. That's what makes them stand out.
Anyways, I guess the point of this post is to say that Patriots losing is a blessing in disguise. If they had gone 19-0, and tied the sport's most sacred team record, it would have invited a larger microscope into the past cheating allegations. If any truly incriminating evidence was found, (and the NFL didn't simply squash it), they might be forced to do something far worse to the Patriots. Like strip titles. And that would be far worse for the sport, possibly on the level of a strike or the Black Sox scandal.
Besides that, the Patriots going 19-0 would ruin some of the "any given Sunday" mystique that the NFL sells so frequently. One team going undefeated in 85 years is a lot more special than even two or three teams being able to accomplish the feat. If teams started going undefeated all the time, it'd be about as special as when a college team does it. Impressive, yes, but only a NCAA Schwab-like savant can name more than a handful of the dozens of teams that have gone undefeated at the college level.