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In NFL, 'dirty' just way to say 'winner'

By GARY SHELTON
Published January 29, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [Getty Images] Rodney Harrison, here hitting Dolphins tight end David Martin, has been accused of dirty play and was suspended for HGH use. Related content John Romano: Mystery of Giants hard one to solve Listen to analysis from Gary Shelton

PHOENIX -- Given the imperfection of our lives, we prefer to see perfection on the field.

Give us a choice, and we would rather discuss victories than villains. We prefer the talk of dynasties to that of dirty play. We would rather admire a team for playing above the clouds than admonish it for hitting below the belt.

Despite all of the allegations, perhaps that is why so many people admire the New England Patriots.

Yeah, they have broken a few rules.

A few records, too.

They are Team Spygate. They are the team of Rodney Harrison, who was suspended this season for HGH. They are the team of Richard Seymour and Matt Light, both accused recently of dirty play. They have become the NFL's Evil Empire, emphasis on the word "empire."

Still, when you compare it to other sports, the outcry seems subdued. Part of this is that the Patriots are so good. They have silenced critics with their excellence. In the race toward the history books, they have outrun their controversies.

Also, when you get down to it, part of it is this: This is football. Don't you want your team to play a little dirty?

It is a rough sport, professional football, and we want our teams to be rougher. It is a game of passion, and if those passions boil over now and then, we are willing to understand. Hit hard enough, and sometimes, it is permissible to hit late. After all, this is the NFL. There is no Lady Byng Trophy given for playing nice.

The NFL is a pirate movie. It's a biker bar. Fans expect a little rule-bending. How else are they going to know if a team is trying?

"Football players are the closest thing we have to gladiators," former Bengals safety Solomon Wilcots said. "If you can win enough, fans will forgive anything. They like a bad---. They like a bully."

Take New England's Bill Belichick. If he were in college football, he would be thought of in the same terms as Barry Switzer or Charley Pell.

Whether you are Don Shula, the ex-Dolphin coach who suggested that illegal videotaping tainted the legacy of the Patriots, or Terry Bradshaw, who immediately shouted down Shula, you can say what you want about Spygate. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell allowed that when he ordered the evidence taken from the Patriots to be destroyed.

Once that happened, Spygate became an eye-of-the-beholder transgression. No one will ever know how long the illegal video-taping of assistant coaches had gone on or how much it helped the Patriots along their way.

Even now, it is easy to dismiss as "everyone does it." That isn't true. If everyone did it, then the NFL wouldn't have taken away a No.1 draft pick and fined Belichick $500,000 (and the team another $250,000).

Yet, it is true that in the NFL, people still tell old stories of coaches protecting their practices from agents of Al Davis or George Allen. Those kind of stories are told with a requisite twinkle in the eye. Over time, they sound a little like swashbuckling.

Looking back, can you imagine the uproar that would be going on if Goodell had made the Patriots forfeit that game, as some suggested? Can you imagine the Patriots showing up 17-1 with that as the only blemish on their record? There also were critics who suggested that Belichick be suspended for four games, the same as most players who had been caught on the other side of the rules. If Belichick were gone for four weeks, might the Patriots still be unbeaten? No one will ever know.

Consider, too, the case of Harrison. If he were a baseball player, he would be compared to Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds. If he were a track star, he would be compared to Marion Jones.

It is odd that Harrison, twice voted the Dirtiest Player in the NFL, would receive a relative pass at the same time Clemens and Bonds are getting hammered by critics. Harrison was suspended for four games for HGH. As of yet, Congress does not seem interested.

Is it a different standard? Of course it is. Even Red Sox player Mike Lowell suggested as much. In baseball, people talk about "cheating." In football, people talk about a team's "distractions."

"That's not my concern," Harrison said Monday.

Asked about dirty play, Harrison shrugged. "Football is a dirty game. Look at how linemen cut block and receivers intentionally go at your knees. I was taken out last year by (Minnesota's) Bobby Wade. Is that dirty? I missed the AFC Championship. I could have ended my career. And they say I'm dirty."

This isn't just about the Patriots. The Packers, remember, accused the Giants' offensive line - center Shaun O'Hara, in particular - of dirty play.

"We both are dirty," linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "That's why we're in the Super Bowl."

None of this is new. Teams used to suggest that the offensive lines for the 49ers and the Broncos played dirty. The Raiders built their reputation on being rulebreakers. And fans loved them. In the NFL, it is preferable to be the bully than the bullied.

Win enough, and football fans will look the other way. Remember all the furor that followed Robbie Alomar's spitting incident? You didn't hear nearly as much about it when Bill Romanowski did it. Remember when Latrell Sprewell went after a coach? When ex-Panther Kevin Greene did the same thing, it wasn't nearly the controversy.

Again, this is football. It's okay to be over the line.

Provided, of course, that it's the goal line.

[Last modified January 29, 2008, 01:13:07]