January 8, 2002: Strahan's Tainted Record
Favre's Generosity Gives Strahan a Tainted Record
January 8, 2002, Sacramento Bee, Marcus Bretón:
The
fix was in -- courtesy of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. Favre
virtually laid down late in a game Sunday so New York Giants defensive end
Michael Strahan could break the NFL's 17-year-old single-season sack record.
With a straight face, Favre swears the play was legit. Yeah, right. The Packers had the ball and were ahead 34-25 with 2:46 to go. Strahan needed one sack for the record but had none on the day. A win would assure the Packers a home game in the first round of the playoffs -- so what does this situation call for? Run the ball. Instead, Favre took the snap, ran directly at Strahan and took a dive. Then Favre heartily congratulated Strahan, his offseason golfing friend. Before Sunday's game, the Associated Press quoted Favre as saying, "I may give it to (Strahan) early."
So why not be honest about it afterward? Because it would cheapen Strahan's record? Because it would expose a badly kept secret in sports -- that opponents sometimes help each other when records are at stake? Because Favre's compassionate flop would become a much bigger, more negative story than it currently is?
Maybe.
Not too long ago -- four years ago next month, to be exact -- another fix was in. A basketball player at the University of Connecticut was one point away from setting an all-time school scoring record. But the player -- a senior -- was injured before the season finale. So the player's coach and the opposing coach agreed: The player would get an uncontested layup at the start of the game. It happened, the record was set and the player sat down. The record was then greeted with a media firestorm when the parties involved did what Favre won't -- they fessed up. There was another difference between Favre and the player: She is a woman.
Nykesha Sales -- now a standout forward with the Orlando Miracle of the WNBA. In her case, Sales was ripped from coast to coast. "Has New England lost its once formidable mind? Evidently, given the goings-on at the University of Connecticut ... " wrote George Will in the Washington Post.
"... The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and compromising the integrity of sports is a hellish act," wrote the Baltimore Sun.
Michael Jordan said: "If some team gave me an open lane for a layup for the scoring title, I'd pass the ball. I wouldn't want it."
I wonder what MJ would say about Favre today. Maybe that honesty doesn't pay? Favre knows the score. He stuck to his story Monday and so did his boys -- to a point.
"I'm just going to say it's disappointing," Mark Tauscher told the Associated Press. Tauscher is a Packers offensive lineman who helped keep Strahan in check until Favre's gift. "I'm not going to get into anything else," Tauscher said. "It's disappointing."
It's always disappointing when the ideals of sport are compromised. "There is a noble respect among athletes, but that is not shown by allowing people to achieve records that are tainted," said Craig Wrisberg, professor of sports psychology at the University of Tennessee. "It says something about the value placed on records, rather than of the process (of competition)."
It says something else, too. At the time of Sales' record, critics used it as an opportunity to trash women's sports. This message came even from people who were trying to defend Sales. "If it were two men's teams, I never would have done it," said Michael A. Tranghese, the Big East Conference commissioner who signed off on Sales' layup.
No one said Major League Baseball was illegitimate when Denny McLain grooved a pitch to Mickey Mantle so Mantle could hit his 535th career home run in 1968. Or when male players in all sports remain in games long after the outcome has been decided so a record can be achieved. Or when a minor-league hockey team allowed 69-year-old Gordie Howe to play a few minutes so he could become the only player to compete in six decades.
In Sales' case, more than one person was in on the fix -- and they admitted it. Based on comments from teammates, Favre's case seems like a conspiracy of one -- and he's telling a white lie. But at the end of the day, a gift is still a gift, a dive is still a dive.
The moral to the story? There is a big difference between men's and women's sports -- one is a lot more honest than the other.
SIDENOTES FROM BMTG MANAGEMENT:
MASTEN:
Quote from the article "The moral to the story? There is a big difference
between men's and women's sports -- one is a lot more honest than the other."
That is stupid. The girl gets the lay-up because she can't play at all with her injury. Since they don't even attempt to fake it they are called honest. The stat books still lie as she is now credited with a record. They are all chumps. In my book Mark Gastineau is still the greatest sacker in the history of the world.
ARCHIE:
Tainted records only serve to weaken the value of all records kept. If it
is this easy to manufacture a record, then the record books are meaningless.
From the articles I have seen, all the Packers players (and the coach) thought
it was going to be a running play to the other side. Therefore the tightend
on Strahan blocked accordingly. Favre changed the play on his own and Strahan
stepped right on in. Another thing is that if it was indeed a running play,
then there should be no sack awarded - it is just a tackle.
Strahan himself should ask that it be taken away and Favre should retire in disgrace. I thought Favre had more respect for the game than this.
I would think the Packers offensive line would be pretty upset. This season they allowed 22 sacks - four fewer than the team's previous low for a season in 1997. Plus they had held Strahan without a sack the entire game.
Grant Napear even commented about it during the Sunday Kings game. He said that he is as big a New York fan as anyone, but that what happened was a disgrace.
When the chicks did it a few years ago, they weakened and cheapened women's
sports in general and proved that they were not to be taken seriously....