ESPN talking heads have been yapping non-stop today about whether or not the Patriots are “running up the score” and whether or not that’s a Good Thing. Washington Redskins linebacker Randall Godfrey said this after their game this weekend:
“I told [Belichick], ‘You need to show some respect for the game.’ You just don’t do that. I don’t care how bad it is. You’re up 35 points and you’re still throwing deep? That’s no respect. . .You gotta show some class, show some respect. . .They’re up 30-some points and they’re throwing deep. That was blatant disrespect.
If we were talking Peewee football, I’d agree with him. But the Redskins are (presumably) professional football players. Get over it. You don’t want someone coming out and scoring 50 points on you? Stop them. It’s that simple. If the Pats want to risk injury to get a little more live practice, that’s their call. They don’t owe their opponents mercy. THIS IS SPARTA!
There are a (very few) situations in which I think it’s completely reasonable to call off the dogs.
The first of those is youth football. No need to run up the score there… it’s not even that impressive, really, although the argument of needing more “live” practice is certainly more salient here. The exception, of course, is for some cocky team that needs to learn a lesson or two. Once you hit high school, though, all bets are off. You’ve gotta learn how to handle getting embarrassed at some point… might as well be sooner rather than later.
The second exception is in situations where one team had to pay the other to come play. For example, when Michigan paid App. State to come to the Big House this year, it was really sportsmanlike of them not to run up the score. Same goes if your team is the payee… I figure you’ve got two options… return the money or bench your starters when the game is in hand.
If you’re a Division I college program or an NFL team, there is no crying about getting killed. You don’t like it? Put a defense on the field that can stop them, or YOU hold on to the ball when you get it. If you can’t stop them, spend your time getting better, not whining about how that team shouldn’t have been so mean to you.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Running up the score at the Youth level is never tolerable.
Once you start getting paid, all bets are off.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
It’s perfectly acceptable for them to run it up in the pros. However, it’s pretty stupid in my opinion. You are just risking injury. The team that is losing is going to be angry and going to be taking cheap shots to try to hurt the winning team. Is it really worth it for your QB to risk taking a helmet to the knee when he is running out of bounds? Or something similar?
October 30th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Maybe. It’s probably a hell of a lot better practice than they’re used to.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I think one of the things you’re overlooking is how bad Matt Cassel and Matt Gutierrez are. Neither started in college, and in fact, Gutierrez had to transfer to Idaho State to play. And the comments about the Patriots throwing deep… they’ve lost Maroney for 3 games, Morris for at least 5 weeks. It’s their RBs that are taking helmets to the knee. Brady is being sacked on average once a game. His line is protecting him more than they are protecting the RBs.
Unless you are condoning cheep shots aimed at actually injuring Brady, he’s almost safer playing than sitting on the sideline.