This past weekend's NFL Conference Championship games featuring the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants were incredible, simply incredible. Going into the game many experts predicted that the Giants and the Ravens would lose. Needless to say, predicting is an inexact science.
Watching the two games I was astounded at how well the defenses played. The Ravens, who have won 10 games in a row, have been playing the underdog role for most of the season, including every playoff game they have played in to date. They are this year's Tennessee Titans, the playoff underdog that made it to the Big Show. Like the Titans of 1999-2000, I doubted how good the team was. In this column space a year ago, I repeatedly picked the Titans to lose each and every week. Staying true to form this year, I picked the Ravens to lose every week.
I did not feel that the defense was as good as the numbers it was putting up, particularly the stat of allowing the fewest points over the course of the regular season. In the last few weeks of watching though, I am a believer. That defense is incredible. It is the best since the Chicago Bears of 1985.
Now, as for the New York Giants, their playoff performances have been impressive as well. They shut down Donovan McNabb and the Eagles and dropped a big fat shutout on the star-studded Viking offense. Also, who expected the Giant offense to explode for 41 points?
However, it was their defense that caught my attention. Not only did they shut out the Viking offense, they did so convincingly. Daunte Culpepper could not get anything going in the passing game, and Robert Smith was ineffective on the ground.
Now is everything fine and dandy in the NFL? Are we ready for a good, clean-fought Super Bowl? Maybe not. According to a report by Marty York of the Toronto Globe and Mail, the Giants are cheating. Allegedly, they are listening in and stealing the opposition's offensive plays and adjusting their defense accordingly with hand signals.
Now to me, this sounds preposterous. On the other hand, I did not expect the Giants to play this well, so maybe they do have some element of subterfuge going on. How might they be listening in? Who is listening? Would Giants Head Coach Jim Fassel approve such measures? Who knows. What I do know is that I do not believe the rumors.
The goal of sports, especially professional sports, is to win, but at what cost? Stealing plays is cheating and would be the worst way to win. It would be unethical and abhorrent. Hopefully, Fassel and his staff have enough respect for the game not to cheat like this.
How could someone or some people do this? If it were me, I'd feel like a disgrace, like I violated the sanctity of the game. However, the topic deserves attention because it rears its head in other sports. It is about trying to know what your opponent is going to do and how best to counter it. All teams scout their opponents in advance for an edge and to evaluate opposing players, but where is the line drawn? Certainly, stealing plays in football is wrong.
A few years ago in a NFL playoff game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins, former Dolphin Keith Byars, who was with the Patriots at the time, divulged to his defensive teammates Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino's audibles and the hand signals for those audibles. As a result, Marino was intercepted more than once and the Patriots went on to win the game. Was that cheating or fair game? I say fair game " Marino should have at least changed his hand signals.
In baseball, some players look down and read what pitch is coming or they have a teammate on second base letting them know the pitch. Cheating? Maybe. San Diego Padre immortal Tony Gwynn has the right attitude about it though. He says that he does not want to know what is coming, that he wants to hit the right way by using his talents to make contact. The players who steal pitch signals should adopt Gwynn's attitude.
Scouting your opponents is certainly legal and beneficial, but some forms of obtaining knowledge are wrong. It is hard to specify where the line is, but it does exist and it is essential to maintaining the sanctity of sport.
Hopefully this situation with the Giants will be resolved and all parties cleared of any wrongdoing. The one thing the NFL does not want would go something like this. A young boy passing by Giants wide receiver Joe Jurevicius asks if the rumor is true, saying "say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so." And all Jurevicius can do is stare back blankly and walk away without responding.
