Posts Tagged ‘2009 Colts’
Few sports teams bring out more hatred and emotion than the 1972 Dolphins. But the fact that this team stirs up so much strong emotion after 37 years is a testament to how great they are. Only really good teams are hated as much, or more than they are loved. If a team is insignificant, then people don’t even waste their energy getting worked up about them, they usually just laugh at anyone who tries to defend them. This is not the case with the ‘72 Dolphins. Many will try and say that there are so many better teams, or that any pro or college football team of the modern era could beat them. But there are only unprovable opinions. Why do people get so upset? Because they know in their heart that they can’t make a solid argument to counter accomplishment. Speculation and theories don’t cut it in the end. Were the 2007 Patriots a better team, maybe, but that is as far as you can take that argument. Strength of schedule, season length, opponents’ winning percentage, modern conditioning, size and speed of players and anything else you can think of “don’t mean squat”, accomplishment does. What matters is did you take the plate that was set before you and shatter it into oblivion? Only the 1972 Dolphins have done that in the form of an undefeated Superbowl championship season. So when a team like the 2009 Colts choose to abandon the pursuit of perfection in an attempt to improve their chances to win a championship, does it diminish or devalue what the ‘72 Dolphins did? Absolutely not! If anything, it makes the accomplishment all the more significant. Football use to be about toughness, with a little bit of finesse seasoned in for balance. I could make an argument that modern teams may be more athletic but they are not nearly as tough. There are so many rules, medical and technological improvements implemented for the protection of players, not to mention larger rosters. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it needs to be thrown into the equation of debate.
Coach Caldwell better hope that his “conservative play calling” wins him a Superbowl, because if the Colts are bounced in the playoffs, the fans will not forget. I would also make the argument that what Coach Caldwell did is more selfish than selfless. What means more to a franchise, winning a championship or winning a championship on top of a perfect season? It’s easier and, in the short term, more beneficial for a coach to just go after the championship. Then he can forever wear the title, Superbowl-winning coach. But so what, every year we have had a Superbowl winner, and every year we add yet another. But you can’t say that about a perfect season. In the Olympics, winning a gold medal is great, but it doesn’t compare to winning a gold medal when you break a record. As Coach Herm Edwards once said, “You Play to Win the Game”. When it comes to the NFL, only the 1972 Dolphins truly took that to heart every week and made good on it. And the record remains…