The visit of the NFL’s New England Patriots to London for last weekend’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has deflected attention from a minor controversy about whether or not they were guilty of running up the score in the previous week’s 59-0 drubbing of the Tennessee Titans.
Running up the score is a uniquely American controversy. In many sports at both amateur and professional levels, it is common for teams that are comfortably beating their opponents to continue to play at the same level, and continue to score. The only exception is perhaps in friendly games, where it might be in the best interests of the game to ease off on the losing team. Whilst a football team might start to string passes together, rather than press for another goal, the side will still take whatever opportunities comes its way.
In the United States and Canada however, a winning team that has a comfortably large margin will be expected go easy on its opponent, playing less aggressively, and replacing star players with their backups. Against the Titans, the Patriots found themselves 45-0 up at half time, after a breathtaking second quarter display that included five touchdowns. NFL etiquette would therefore require them to send their reserve quarterback out in place of three-time Superbowl winner Tom Brady, and to stick largely to running plays, thus saving much further embarrassment for the struggling Titans. Instead, the Patriots sent Brady out for the second half, and added a further touchdown before then easing up and sending the replacements in.
Admittedly, what criticism there has been has been subdued, but this is familiar territory for the Patriots. In their record-breaking 2007 season, a 52-7 victory over the Washington Redskins was criticised for the same reason, although 2007 was also the year of the “Spygate” affair, which confirmed the Patriots as the league’s most unpopular team, and meant that any chance to criticise the franchise would be seized upon.
It is nonetheless an oddity that in a professional league this is worthy of debate. Professional sport is a results-driven business, and no coach is more unsentimental and focused on winning than the Patriots’ Bill Belichick. Amateur and professional sportsmen in competitive fixtures around the world have suffered defeats by 100 points in rugby, 10 wickets in cricket, several goals in football, and so on, and although they may bristle at the indignity, would be far more insulted if their opponent appeared to take pity on them. Furthermore, goal or points difference are usually important when deciding league placings and so on.
In the end, this is one of the many cultural differences that separate North America from the rest of the sporting world, and the fascination with these differences is what draws many overseas fans into the NFL and its fellow American sports leagues.
2 comments:
I'm doing an analytical report on this topic and I enjoyed your blog entry. Although I agree on many points, it must be noted that as insane as it may be it is still entirely possible that the other team can 'comeback' in this sport. There all professionals that are being payed greatly for the skill they posses. Why should the patriots be blamed for the other team letting them score those many points? The titans gave up the game (period).
Besides, its entirely possible, although highly unlikely, that there could have been a role reversal that could have led to a great comeback but historic upset for the patriots. Once, the bears scored 21 unanswered points in the last 6 minutes of a football game that they looked horrible in for the entire 54 minutes of the game. imagine if the titans had that luck for the entire second half of that game.
Oh, & the patriots could have easily put up another 45 pts or so in the 2nd half, but they eased off the pedal big time. Guess they werent 'running up the score' afterall, they were just playing the game. Too bad the other team wasnt.
I entirely agree with you, it's up to both teams to take responsibility for their own performance and results, however they see fit. I was just interested in the fact that people even debate this issue, it seems an odd form of sportsmanship.
The first time I encountered the topic of running up the score I was bemused, as elsewhere in the world, teams would be expected to keep pushing for more scores, although the fact that margins of victory are usually taken into account in other sports, unlike in the NFL, may account for that.
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