The Sports Rumors

Patriots Should Have Asterisk?

Big news of the day was Miami Dolphins hall of fame coach Don Shula making comments suggesting that if the Patriots go 16-0, they should have an asterisk placed by their record due to the events of “Spygate”.

“The Spygate thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished. You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They’ve got it,” Shula told the Daily News yesterday. “Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,00 and they lost a first-round draft choice. That tells you the seriousness or significance of what they found.

“I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds’ home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a No.1 draft choice was taken away during that year of accomplishment. The sad thing is Tom Brady looks so good, it doesn’t look like he needs any help.”

When I first heard of this story and these comments, I dismissed it as someone who is just jealous that his record is probably going to be tied and he is bitter because of it. Then I thought some more about what he was saying and I came to realize that Shula had some very valid points. The Patriots were not accused, but convicted of cheating. They were penalized a first round draft choice and fined thousands of dollars. That is a significant verdict/punishment. That isn’t something you can just forget. If we can say that Barry Bonds should have an asterisk next to his homerun record mark, even though he has never been caught cheating, why should we give the Patriots a free pass?

There should not be double standards, ever.

I understand that they are a great team who are absolutely dominating and destroying anyone in their path. I understand that they probably never needed to cheat to be great anyway. But cheating is cheating, and they were caught. By the way, read my last three sentences again and see if it sounds familiar. Barry Bonds was also a dominating force who probably never needed to cheat either to be great. Yet we have convicted him in the court of public opinion so the Pats should be treated the same.

I’m not sure if the asterisk is the best way to go because I haven’t thought about other possibilities yet. However, Don Shula is right when he says that it should be noted, in one way or another, that the Patriots were caught cheating during their “perfect” season.

The Dolphins visit the Patriots in week 15 of the season and could, seriously, be 0-14 vs the 14-0 Pats.  We could be witnesses to irony, karma, whatever you want to call it at its absolute finest.