In the build-up to November 4th's meeting between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts a tide of commentary has hit shore attacking Bill Belichick, the head coach of the Patriots, in comparison to Tony Dungy, coach of the Colts. The attacks have become so venomous and so ridiculous that they are becoming something resembling a lynching.

The common themes of these attacks are how crass Belichick is compared to Dungy - how Dungy is a nice guy who is cooperative to the media and doesn't run up scores to humiliate opponants and is not a cheater like Belichick, and on and on. The problem with these attacks is the premise behind them is wrong.

The incessent screaming about the Patriots running up scores betrays a mind-boggling hypocrisy, for the argument against running up scores is twofold - that is violates good sportsmanship (a concept that never existed in any level of sports in history) and that a team being thus humiliated will be so enraged as to see players try to inflict serious injury during play on their opponant.

Those who push this argument don't seem to realize they are contradicting themselves, for if a team being humiliated will thus take it out by cheapt-shot hits on opposing players, then good sportsmanship doesn't exist. It also ignores how teams routinely try cheap shots on the Patriots AT THE START of games - the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos in particular are notorious for that with any opponant, with the Panthers famously filmed trying to start pregame fights with the Forty-Niners in 1996 and the Patriots in Superbowl 38.

Moreover, the concept of good sportsmanship is laughable because it teaches people NOT to try and win. Sportsmanship is ultimately a euphemism for weakness, and in competition, weakness equals losing. In Dungy's case, it brings to mind his lousy reputation as a playoff coach until the Colts finally reached the Superbowl, a reputation built on timidity on the part of Dungy and also on the part of his teams - most infamously illustrated in 2005 when Peyton Manning overruled Dungy on a fourth-down play when Dungy sent on the field goal unit.

And lost in the argument about running up scores is the key question - why don't these opponants, and by extension the league, deserve it? In the case of the Colts, underhanded pool means GM Bill Polian manipulating rule changes and changes in rule enforcement after the 2003 season to get opposing defensive players (read Patriots) off his flimsy receivers. It is no accident that the Colts finally started winning over the Patriots when the rules in effect forbade the Patriots from physical play against Colt receivers.

Attacks on Belichick for not being cooperative with the media ignore that it is not a coach's job to do so; if media want answers, they'll get them in due time. The argument brings to mind numerous instances where coaches such as Eagles coach Andy Reid released injury reports on players many days before big games in order to be accomodating to the media - with no one seeming to notice that the Patriots take such information and better game-plan with it.

Belichick is doing what good coaches are supposed to do, and the media betrays total ignorance in attacking him for it.

Learn more about this author, Michael Daly.
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