Debates roll on
Debates, debates and more debates. Everywhere you turn it seems
like there’s another debate. And I’m not talking about the
presidential debates that we have been bombarded with in recent
months. No, this election year the real debate seems to be on which
NFL team should be nominated as the best ever.
Debates roll on
Debates, debates and more debates. Everywhere you turn it seems like there’s another debate. And I’m not talking about the presidential debates that we have been bombarded with in recent months. No, this election year the real debate seems to be on which NFL team should be nominated as the best ever.
That bar room discussion came to the forefront shortly after the New England Patriots rolled to a 16-0 record, eclipsing the Miami Dolphins’ mark of 14-0 set back in 1972, and the 49ers 16-game season record of 15-1 in 1984.
Talk of the Pats’ record-breaking season was no surprise. After all, talk of who is the best ever and which team is the best ever has been going on since the dawn of man. New England’s undefeated season just added more fuel to the eternal fire.
Since the first golf , base, soft, tennis, basket and foot balls were invented “best ever” debates have gone on. Theses athletics debates probably first started with the cave man boulder roll event. Who knows?
Look at the current college football playoff system. It is so flawed that it makes for debate even after the “national champion” has been declared. LSU beat Ohio State Monday night but LSU had two losses. How can the national BCS champs be granted the crown with two losses? I guess that’s one more debate for another column.
Presidential debates roll around every four years. Sports debates never cease: Woods vs. Nicklaus, Ali vs. Marciano, Ryan vs. Koufax, Babe vs. Bonds, Orr vs. Gretzky, Russell vs. Chamberlain, Bird vs. Magic, Connors vs. McEnroe, etc, etc, etc, the list goes on and on.
The problem with most of these is that we will never know for sure which team or athlete was better than the other as most comparisons include players and teams that played in different eras and against different competition.
And, personally, I think that team records don’t always tell the whole story. For example, the 1984 49ers team that went 15-1 before winning the Super Bowl over Miami was not as skilled as the 1989 49ers team that went 14-2 with Steve Young backing up Joe Montana.
This 2007 New England team couldn’t even dream that roster up, which also included: Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, Brent Jones, Matt Millen, Bubba Paris, Jerry Rice, Bill Romanowski, John Taylor and Eric Wright. I could go on but you’re starting to get the picture.
What about the guys who played on one of the original six NHL teams. Today, there are 30 teams. Can you say watered-down talent pool? Any starter on one of the original six teams would probably be a NHL all-star today – but I can’t prove it so another debate rages on.
Take golf. While Tiger Woods is amazingly awesome and will probably shatter Nicklaus’ records, he is still chasing the Golden Bear. And even if he breaks Nicklaus’ slew of records there will still be debaters. And one thing they’ll no doubt point out that really puts Nicklaus into perspective was the 1998 Masters tournament – the year a 58-year-old Nicklaus – with a bum hip that would need to be replaced the following year – finished sixth in the tournament – two spots ahead of 22-year-old defending champion Tiger Woods.
The bottom line is debating sports talent is a tradition. Our grandparents probably debated with their peers hundreds of times as to whether or not Joe DiMaggio was better than Ted Williams. And to this day no one can say for sure. Well, I’d say hands down Williams but I’d never get 100 percent agreement – and neither will the New England Patriots.
New England is no doubt one of the greatest teams in the history of the NFL, perhaps even the greatest. If they win this year’s Bowl it will be tough to debate otherwise. Remember, I said tough, not impossible, which means nothing when it comes to sports is etched in stone. Kind of makes you wonder why stats are even bothered to be kept.
