And The Moral of This Story Is...

One of the reasons parents sign their children up for youth sports is to teach them lessons about life.

A smart/aware child with a parent(s) who can properly relate life happenings into messages that stay with them will learn the concepts of:
Teamwork
Hard Work
Selflessness
Loyalty
Friendship
Respect
Determination
Sportsmanship
Fair play
Dealing with Success and Failure
Self Esteem
Etc...

But there are other ways to get life lessons from sports. For example, while watching the SuperBowl this year you would've learned, or been reminded that:

1) Cheaters never prosper

Earlier this season, New England Patriots head coach, Bill Bellicheck got caught cheating, received the highest penalty ever handed down by the NFL league - and it still wasn't enough. The New England Patriots were outed for illegally taping their opponents' sidelines to learn defensive signals months after the NFL sent out a memo to all 32 teams specifically telling them to not do this. How did they get caught?

Well, one of their former assistant coaches is now coach of their division rivals, the New York/New Jersey Jets. The first game of the season, they play each other, Jets coach Eric Mangini hears the cameras are indeed still out, and he blows the whistle on his former mentor (they had caught beef after he left to coach the Jets). The NFL fines Bellicheat $500,000 (he makes more than $5 Million a year), the team $250,000 and takes away their 1st round draft pick (what would eventually be the 31st pick in the draft...from a team that has made the Super Bowl 4 out of 7 years, meaning - THEY DONT NEED NO STINKING DRAFT PICKS!), while on the regular suspending Negro cornerbacks for 1 year when they haven't even been convicted of any crimes. Not that Pacman Jones hasn't got himself arrested 4 times in a year, and definitely needs to stay the eff away from strip clubs, but its not illegal to get arrested. Let the legal process work out! But here we have the coach of the most successful team caught cheating...in a way they just asked you not to do in a memo sent to all 32 teams...and they don't even suspend this dude.

W...T...F

The point is, the Patriots are cheaters and weren't properly punished by the NFL. Cats was mad. The Patriots themselves got mad, offended that anyone would dare say their accomplishments were tainted. (*) So they started playing angry and setting offensive records.In the end Karma got em. 18-1.

I like Tom Brady, he's a Michigan man and a true underdog story come to life. But he plays for the Patriots. So I was happy to see him get ROCKED like this.
Really though, how do you win all the games UNTIL the SuperBowl? That's a joke. I like Tom Brady, but i don't mess with cheaters. So f*** 'em. Shout out to Plaxico Burress. Shout out to Eli Manning.

2) Patience is a virtue

Last year the Giants started something like 7-2, and finished 8-8, barely making the playoffs (because all the teams in the NFC sucked last year...All of them). They also lost their first round playoff game. It was widely assumed that head coach Tom Coughlin was going to get fired. I don't remember off hand but I think something similar happened the year before also. Coughlin, a noted hard-ass, was thought to no longer be getting through to his players. He had rules like be at meetings 5 minutes early or get fined and other craziness, and they weren't feeling him - and quit on him. Not only did the sports media make it known Coughlin was on the hot seat, they pretty much led everyone to believe he was DEFINITELY gone as coach of the New York Giants. The NY sports media tried to run him out of town.

To put this in a little context - the San Diego Chargers went 14-2 last year, lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs and FIRED their coach (What?!). If 14-2 doesn't secure your job, how does going 1-7 your last 8 games? (It doesn't). Brian Billick led the Ravens to a Superbowl victory a couple years ago and was fired this year despite his team going 12-4 last year. Yet Tom Coughlin still had a job in 2007.The Giants started 0-2. It should've been 0-3 but the Redskins don't know how to finish off games and couldn't get a touchdown with first and goal from the 2 at the end of their Week 3 game. But things were different with Coughlin this year. Long story short, he listened to criticism. And did what he could to change to get through to his players. And they played hard for him. They ended up winning 11 road games in a row. That's AMAZING. The 11th was the Super Bowl

So what does this have to do with Patience? Well, the Giants QB is 4th year Eli Manning. It takes time for QBs to come up. Some of the Giants other players were growing up too. It wasn't a team full of veterans (like the current Patriots) and there were some personnel gaps that weren't the coach's fault. In fact, their secondary is allegedly a weakness for them, and one the Pats were supposed to exploit. Coughlin was able to convince ownership that he had a plan and they were progressing just fine - just not INSTANTLY.

These days everyone wants everything right now. Fans want to win right now. Ownership does too. But you have to give people a chance. Bill Bellicheat, as much as I don't like him, was the Cleveland Browns head coach back in the day and their record was HORRIBLE. Now he's allegedly the best coach in the NFL. It takes time for people to figure things out. If you ain't been a head coach in the NFL before, there's a pretty good change you won't be great instantly at it. There are only 32 of those positions...sooooo, even if u have a mentor and sit under the learning tree, its different when you do it yourself.

You have to give things time. And not just in sports.

Kudos to the Giants ownership for not being knee-jerks. And Congratulations.

3) Quit hating and get money

At some point, no matter what people say about you or what you've done in the past, you gotta handle your business. Tiki Barber, a running back with the Giants who retired after last year while he probably had 2 or 3 good years left...is now a commentator for NBC. He came out early in the season and said Eli Manning, Giants young QB, was "laughable" as a leader in the huddle.
1, that's fucked up.
2, Eli responded verbally and won himself a lil' locker room respect. Then he went out and won the Super Bowl MVP award that same season.

The lesson? Quit hating, get money. How the eff does Tiki Barber instantly flip from team captain to dirty laundry airer? How you gonna turn around and diss your teammate on national tv just to have something to say on a NBC pregame show? A pregame show??? Where your Super Bowl ring at Tiki? Eli's got one. You quit on your team and they went off and prospered. Stop hating and get money. Let's talk about the rest of these sports media fools...

4) Don't count your chickens before they hatch

All season, the Patriots and their "we're not really cheaters, watch us blow you fools out week after week" antics, while entertaining, didn't prove much. But don't tell that to ESPN, Fox, CBS and the NBC NFL broadcast teams. To them, the Pats were the best team ever. And there was nothing anyone could say because the Pats were blowing cats out 48-10 weekly. Ratings were way up. This Super Bowl was seen by 97.5 Million people. Then the Colts almost beat them in Week 12. The Colts, defending Super Bowl champs, were also undefeated going into their showdown with the Patriots. Highest rated regular season game in damn near ever. But no one was talking about the Colts the way they talked about the Pats. That's disrespectful.

The Colts didn't get a chance to rematch because they lost to the Chargers, in the AFC playoffs. A game in which both team's best players came up hurt. So the Pats were able to sneak by the Chargers with no LaDanian Tomlinson and a really hurt Phillip Rivers. Not to mention their three close calls in the regular season. The Eagles didn't play scared, and ran up on the Pats with their backup QB and some blitz schemes. Lost by 3. The Ravens HAD the Pats, messed around and called a timeout with a lead and the Patriots facing a 4th and 1. The Pats went for a QB sneak and didn't make it...but the timeout had been called. Then the roid rage took over when one of their linebackers got mad at a bad call, grabbed the ref's flag and tossed that sumbitch. Huh? Who does that? 15 yard penalty. Pats score. Pats Win.

Then, Week 17, The Giants decided not to rest their starters, even though they had qualified for the playoffs the week before. Didn't have much to gain from the Pats game...except confidence and momentum. The Giants came at the Pats and Tom Brady had to throw 3 TD passes in the 4th quarter. Great game. Exciting. But it was in New York, so people assumed if the Pats can beat the Giants on the road, their's no way they aren't going to beat them on a neutral field.

Way.

First of all, the Giants didn't run ALL their plays that game. It was like an exhibition. You play hard, but you don't want to reveal to everything so the teams you play the next week don't know your best plays and tendencies.So you can't count that as muchBut. The REAL counting chickens scenario went like this...Last week, officials from the New England Patriots inquired about trademarking "19-0". Word? B**** you ain't won 19 games yet! Let that be a lesson to you - Temp fate at your own peril. That's what you get for trickin.

Earlier this week, accusations surfaced that the Pats taped the St Louis Rams' practices back in 2003 - the beggining of the Patriots "dynasty". The Commissioner, who has put out statements that he considers the Spygate episode dead, came out and said he reserves the right to revisit the matter if actual new information comes out...OOPS
As soon as that happened, I knew they were losing. Not only is it a big distraction, but the commissioner probably called them and demanded they throw the game before "cheaters" sit atop the record books a'la Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Now they got some United States Senate investigations about to pop off. People want answers.

Cheaters Never Prosper

"And the winner is Hov! My Man.... SPEECH!"