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Real Answers™
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Copyright: ©2008 Debbie Thurman
670 words

AN NFL MORAL TALE

By: Debbie Thurman

The much-anticipated super showdown between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants will go down in sports lore as one of the greatest ever. Too bad its lessons were drowned out by the other Super event of February, Super Tuesday.

Conveniently underrated Eli Manning and company staged one of the most dramatic upsets in Super Bowl history. Good for them. Unsung heroes are a welcome breath of fresh air in this world of super jocks and politicians.

Many such contests are over-hyped. After all, the broadcasting networks — in this case, Fox — have no guarantee of pulling in the audience they hope for. That was not the case for Super Bowl XLII. How can you over-hype a national championship duel between an undefeated team with the most consecutive wins in NFL history and the longest wild-card shot ever to play for the title? We got our money’s worth.

While this latest Super Bowl brought with it the heartwarming touch of seeing Archie Manning’s other quarterback son win his first Super Bowl ring a year after older brother Peyton won his, there were some interesting contrasts between this game and last year’s.

Take the coaches. Last year, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith were the first African-American coaches ever to face each other in a Super Bowl. However, what they chose to play up — and punctuate with a full-page national newspaper ad — was their mutual Christian faith. It was hard not to want to root for both Indianapolis and Chicago as their coaches are two of the classiest in the NFL.

Then there’s the enigmatic and terse Bill Belichick. He and the Patriots somehow managed to put the early-season Spygate scandal behind them and pulled off an amazing 18-game run in their quest for the NFL title. The cheating clearly tarnished the team’s image, however. Fans voting on which of five great teams was the best dynasty in NFL history placed the Patriots dead last.

Cover Boy Tom Brady and the reserved, unflappable Eli Manning could hardly be more of a study in contrasts. Brady is photographed by paparazzi as often as Peyton Manning plugs a product on TV. While Eli is quietly engaged to his college sweetheart, Brady was celebrated during a televised game following the out-of-wedlock birth of his child with his model girlfriend (not the only one, apparently) as some kind of hero. News flash: Heroes marry the mothers of their children, preferably before the blessed event.

In the end, New York’s punishing defense, along with the ballyhoo and pressure of maintaining their streak of near-perfection, did the Patriots in. Four teams almost knocked them off in the regular season, including the Giants. Reality just caught up with them. Brady’s meltdown was almost painful to watch. Almost.

Losing the Super Bowl to an underdog team whose time had come is probably the best thing that could have happened to the Patriots. Poetic justice, some would say.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this statement in an AP news story the morning after the stunning upset: “It was the most bitter of losses, too, because 12-point-favored New England (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents’ defensive signals in the season-opener against the New York Jets.”

Just what part of “illegally” did this reporter not get? A crime the NFL punished by a combined fine of $750,000 for Belichick and his team is worthy of revenge? It was the rest of the NFL and the fans, left pondering a great team’s untimely moral lapse, that were avenged in the end.

New England will lick its wounds and return as a continued powerhouse. Let’s hope this franchise will come back with some much-needed humility. Perhaps an off-season of community service would help rebuild the team’s character. Or maybe a daily prescription of reading a chapter in Proverbs in order to “receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity” (Prov. 1:3).

Debbie Thurman is an award-winning commentator and author who writes from Monroe, Va. Her e-mail address is debbie@debbiethurman.com.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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