Is This How You Want To Win? (Update)
At the time of this writing there’s still an entire half to play in the BCS National Championship Game, but this sucker’s been over since the first quarter.
As you know by now, Texas QB Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game after a tackle and will not return.
In the meantime, Alabama is feasting on the Longhorns’ true freshman replacement, racing out to a 24-6 halftime lead (In fact, Garrett Gilbert is doing so poorly, UT ran 17 plays in the first half that totaled 1 yard or less).
All this begs the question, does McCoy’s injury taint the title for Alabama? Is this how you want to win?
When I posed the question in the office, Bobby chimed in immediately, “you win any way you can take it.”
That’s definitely one school of thought, but what about the team that was essentially handed the victory?
‘Bama players and fans have every right to be proud of their accomplishment, but are they now going to have to live with the idea that their win was somehow diminished?
Are people going to refer to their championship as the title they won because of an injury to the other team’s star player?
That’s a crappy situation. They can’t win for winning.
While I’m sure that the Crimson Tide will take the win, I’m sure that they’d prefer to win it with McCoy under center for Texas.
In fact, I bet that if you polled the Alabama players, they’d probably rather have played this game with McCoy healthy than with him on the sideline.
So that way they’ll know they won it with both teams a full strength.
Does it matter? Do you take a title any way you can get it?
I guess the best way to find your own answer is to put your favorite team in Alabama’s place.
If you’re a Met fan in game 7 of the World Series, do you hope the other team’s ace takes a freakish pre-game spill and can’t start against your team?
If you back the Jets, do you pray Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocino get lost on the way to the stadium on Saturday?
Just hypotheticals. But if you ask me, I want to play for it all at full strength.
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**Update** - Obviously, that 2nd half turned out to be a lot closer than originally expected, but the questions posed above are still relevant. Just imagine if Colt played more than the first drive. Just sayin'.....
Matt Estreich for The Huddle
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Comments: 5
This Blog may be as ridiculous as the BSC (not a misprint, it is BS) Championship Series.
I had no rooting interest in the game, actually was bored by it.
"Taint the title?" Are you kidding me.
Is this the best you could do with this game. I guess so. The game was bad. College Football is a joke. And this particular Blog is inane.
Alabama probably would have won the game even if Colt McCoy played.
Of course you would like to win with a team at full strength. In the end, it doesn't matter. Alabama is the champion. Tainted?
Maybe sometime in 2010 I will make sense out of this....but it is easily the most ridiculous thing I have read this year. Don't worry Matt, the year is only eight days old.
James - Maybe I'm more of a competitor (winner?) and not a whiny/complaining Met fan, but when my teams win (and recently, they have...Yankees, UNC, Giants), I want them to beat the other team's BEST.
Don't give me the Phillies without Cliff Lee. Don't give me Michigan State without whoever they had. Don't give the Patriots without Tom Brady.
I want their best. As a die hard fan of the above teams, I dont need some stupid Patriots/Michigan State/Phillies fan constantly in my ear telling me that I won that title against their backups.
Maybe I'm wrong. It's just that as a serial winner, I want to win right.
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Plus, nobody cares about college football in NY, so this was my best attempt at commenting on the BCS.
As a Yankee fan, you are already a suspect sports fan. Afterall, Yankee fans are notorious front runners.
As for a whiney/complaining Mets fan, I trust you could research my posts and note that I am as positive a Mets fan as there is. More of my complaints are the way the Wilpons run the organization on such things as Citi Field with no Mets Museum and the multiple uniform combinations.
Therefore, if you categorially refer to me as a whiney/complaining Mets fan, then I refer to you as a front running Yankees fan.
Now, your lament regarding "tainting" is like Joe Benigno on WFAN this morning saying if the Jets win on Saturday, everything thereafter is like playing with house money. House Money? "You Play To Win The Game'" said Herman Edwards. The Giants were a fifth seed two years ago. Why not the Jets as the fifth seed in 2010. Probable... No Possible...Yes
Have you ever played sports? Do you not feel accomplishment winning a game no matter what transpired?
Who cares what another fan of a team has to say. There is always going to be something to point to that might "taint" a championship.
I am not saying this, but I am sure you have heard from other fans, especially Mets fans, that the Yankees "bought" the World Championship in 2009. Does that bother you?
Things like this do not bother me. If I have a championship in my back pocket, nothing anyone says "taints" it.
Your approach in some competitive circles may be noble, but I define it as silly.
The point, there are always circumstances that competing fans can point to which discredit a championship. Is Colt McCoy the ONLY player on Texas? Didn't they have a full roster? Would Colt have played well in the game?
This, coming from a week in which people want to say the Jets got into the playoffs because Indianapolis sat Peyton Manning and others and Cincinnati treated Sunday Night's game like a preseason game. They want the Jets fan to feel embarassed to be in the playoffs. Fortunate yes. Embarassed no.
I just do not understand your thought process in this regard. Especially as a Yankees fan, knowing that each year you have a decided advantage over every other team in Major League Baseball. You are inconsistent in this regard.
Matt, hope I did not whine and complain too much for you.
James - You make a good point with the Jets. I agree with you that the Jets and their fans should not feel like they "backed in" to, or, were handed a playoff berth.
And I can see your point comparing their situation to Alabama's.
As far as my inconsistencies in feeling the Jets shouldn't be apologetic while wondering at the same time if Alabama's win may have been lessened.....what can I say....I'm taking these things on a case by case, gut feeling.
Watching that game last night, after watching one team's star player go down after FIVE plays, I couldn't help but feel the juice taken out of that game. For both sides.
If Bama won, the question became 'what if Colt....". Not fair for either side, and again, a crappy situation all around.
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And you don't complain too much. I guess I just mistakenly group all you Mess fans together.
Unfortunately, I also "mistakenly" group all Yankees fans in that same front running category. We see how painting sports fans with a broad brush can be inaccurate.
The term "die hard" Yankee fan is an oxymoron of sorts, for a certain generation of baseball fans. There is a generation or two of say, anyone 30 and under that jumped on the Yankees winning/championship bandwagon, who never had to live through he "Horace Clarke" years.
Although I am not blaming the backward Yankee hat wearing generation, it is amazing the amount of trash they talk and sense of entitlement they demonstrate.
I respect Yankee fans who have supported the team through the lean years. Those are the Yankees fans that deserve the five championships since 1996.
As for the real premise of your initial posting (I did turn this into a New York Civil Conflict Afterall), I guess we will agree to disagree from a fundamental standpoint. It actually is a somewhat intriguing conversation.
Alabama vs. Texas aside, because you are correct, very few in New York care about College Football, this subject transcends that game. It is a philosophy.
As I noted, it played out this week with the endless discussion about the Jets "worthiness" to be in the playoffs due to their "luck" or what I like to refer to as "fortune."
If you are in the playoffs, you deserve to be there. If you win a championship no matter the circumstances, you deserve to be honored accordingly. There are no cheap championships from my standpoint.
Interested to know how our friends LoLo, Bobby and Chris think about this topic.