Fantasy Football Cafe Forum

by **APAP** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:11 pm

See, I think that part of the reason that Belichick doesn't let up when hes up 52-7 IS in part to get back at the league. As much as we say Belichick is respected, overall he really isn't that much. Teams and everybody else wanted to jump all over him because he got caught cheating in THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON. Not like it was 2-3-4 or halfway through, but less than halfway thorugh one game. Nobody stood up for Belichick even in the smallet, tiniest little but and even mentioned that it was during the first game of the year or anything like that, so I don't blame him for being pissed off.

Now back to the topic, I agree with the first post that said there isn't really any such thing as running up the score in a professional league. If any team had done it and got complained at for doing it I'd say suck it up and try playing Defense, it's your fault you got in this whole anyways. But I do love how it's only called running up the score when the Pats do it.....

by **BigBadBrawler** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:45 pm

I'm not really a Pats fan, but I'm far from a hater, and it is fun watching them play this year. I think they absolutely do run up the score (that's fairly obvious) and I do think that they do it knowingly and on purpose, with intent. I also think there's a common courtesy agreement in the NFL to sit on huge leads late in the game (whether we agree with that unwritten rule or not, I think it exists). I think most posts on these topics are much too far to the extreme on the whole Pro-Pats/Anti-Pats and Pro-Bellichick/Anti-Bellichick arguments this year (not neccessarily in this thread, just in general) and like most things, the answer's probably somewhere in the middle. I think Bellicheck isn't the villian he's made out to be by all the haters (but there are plenty of skeletons in his closet to use as ammunition, and some of them do present a pretty class-less picture) and I think the cheating thing wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it was made out to be (I don't think it really has that much affect on the games, and I think a large portion of the league does similar things). As for running up the score, I'm not sure what Bellichick's motivation is, but I do have to admit that it doesn't feel right to me. I hear a lot of "both teams are professionals getting paid to play" and "if they don't like it they should stop them" or other similar arguments (and those are all actually valid points that I can't really dispute). But the fact is that NE is better than everybody they've run up the score on. By a lot. Is that NE's fault? Absolutely not. Do they owe the other teams anything? Absolutely not. But just because you can beat a team of professionals by 7 TDs and they can't stop you, doesn't mean you actually have to. A win's a win, and showing some consideration when you're destroying another team isn't required, but it doesn't really hurt.

Oh and Kill, good post man. Ah, the good ol' days of your youth, back in the 1940's when you used to watch teams with part-time factory workers absolutely maul each other 73-0... :-b

by **JasonSeahorn** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:54 pm

i always thought it funny that a lot of college football games are won by 50+ points.....no one complains about those?

by **fantasizing** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:32 pm

Nothing wrong with running up the score. You don't even want to give the opponent even the glimmer of hope of thinking about the remote possibility of formulating any notion or idea whatsoever of staging a possible comeback. So as Bellichek says to his wife before he goes to bed on sunday nights: "We had to go for the jugular dear"........

And as for the comment on Bellichek not knowing of his misbehaving tactics earlier in the season is ridiculous. I've never seen a player, much less a coach, get fined half a million dollars.

by **u_fig_eater** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 3:55 am

This explains everything: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/boxscore;_y ... 0070930008

by **Azrael** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:57 pm

I don't think teams have a right to complain about someone running up the score if they still have their starters in and are trying to score themselves. So what? It was 35 and 42 to 7 and the Pats had 4th downs inside the 15 or 10 and went for it both times. Why? 1. Because they could. and 2. Because they knew the Bills could not drive the ball 90+ yards on them. You could see it on the Bills' fans faces at the game. Both times they thought they ensured a field goal attempt after stopping them on 3rd and goal only to see Brady lining up in shot gun and then their jaws dropped. TD and TD followed by cascades of boos. And you know what I loved it. I don't like the Patriots but I love to see a good drubbing as much as I love to see a last minute drive to win a game.

But don't complain about running up the score if you are going to try to come back. People want them to stop scoring but then they run their offense out there in the 2 minute drill half way through the 3rd. What? You are still trying to score so stop complaing about them trying to score. Take a knee if you feel like you're done. I think it's up to the losing team to "surrender" if you've had enough. If you aren't going to admit defeat then don't complain about getting your faces rubbed in it.