A Look Back, A Look Ahead . . . Some Things Don’t Change

By Christopher Gabriel, Blog Harbor

Every December when New Year’s Eve rolls around, it’s long since been the norm for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and cable news outlets to offer up a year-end recap of all that’s gone on in the world.  More often than not you’ll read, watch or listen to a well-written or highly-produced piece that is at times witty, at other times melancholy and quite often rather sentimental as it traverses the year’s highlights and lowlights from major news events, politics, sports, pop culture and bizarre things that simply defy logic.  This will not be that article.

Before the clock strikes midnight and we slip into 2008, I thought it might be fun to take a quick trip back to a few recent Blog Harbor topics to see where we’re at with them.

The 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 2007 New England Patriots

Back on December 10th, I wrote about some of the insufferable members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, namely Mercury Morris, and their incessant pleadings for the New England Patriots to finally lose a game so that they would retain their singular moment of greatness, the only undefeated championship season in NFL history.  Certainly it was a marvelous accomplishment, but with guys like Mercury Morris far too often offering little more than ignominious displays of pettiness, impartial fans like myself were forced to jump on the Patriots bandwagon. 

It’s now three weeks later and the  Patriots have indeed finished the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record after a pulsating 38-35 win over the New York Giants at the Meadowlands.  Those screams you heard late in the 3rd quarter and throughout the 4th quarter — if you really listened closely, you could hear them — were those of Mercury Morris.  I have no doubt Mercury was in his basement, lights off, windows taped up as he paced around the room in his official 1972 Dolphins locker room robe and Super Bowl flip-flops while sticking pin after pin in his Tom Brady doll.

If you watched ESPN earlier that day, you got to hear Morris concede that if . . . if . . . the Patriots were to win the Super Bowl and finish 19-0, he would graciously offer them parody with his Dolphins.  BUT, and this is the salient point: He made sure all of us knew that 19-0 was the same winning percentage as his 17-0 Dolphins squad.  Translation in Mercury Morris’ World: The Patriots, if they finish 19-0, would be no more impressive than the ‘72 Dolphins. 

We’ll see how the playoffs shake out.  Obviously, all of this may end up being moot if the Pats lose; and with that, Mercury will once again have the last laugh.  However, if the Pats do win their two playoff games in New England, win the Super Bowl and finish 19-0, Mercury’s time in the sun is done.  Newsflash Mercury: In the years to come, no one will be interested in you, anything you have to say and anything anyone else from that team has to offer up.  This team, on paper and on the field, will have shown they were every bit as good as your Dolphins.  But even more, they will have shown they were superior to you.  Beyond all the stats, all the offensive and defensive comparisons, there is one little item you consistently point out as meaningless that most others think is quite significant: Those two additional games.  I don’t care if, in your view, the two extra regular season wins for the Pats were against garbage teams, they still went out and played two more NFL teams and beat them.  That’s something out of your control since your regular season was only 14 games.  But those additional 120 minutes of football were that much more opportunity for them to lose . . . and they didn’t. 

If the Pats go undefeated it won’t make what the Dolphins accomplished any less significant but maybe . . . maybe . . . it will be the last we’ll ever have to hear from Mercury Morris and any others from that ‘72 team.

Michigan hires Rich Rodriguez

Back on November 19, I did a little compare and contrast between outgoing Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and longtime Tennessee head-man Phillip Fulmer.  Since that time, I was curious to see how Michigan went after a new coach since more often than not, both UT and Michigan act like sister schools in football when it comes to great talent, unfulfilled expectations and the desire to stay in the family for staff replacements, if at all possible.  Certainly, the latter is the Tennessee way so would Michigan do the same?  Well, they tried. 

But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the Big House.  Michigan, after being turned down by a Michigan man, LSU head coach Les Miles (played for Bo Schembechler) in what was a bizarre turn of events, lack of communication and erroneous reports, went about 270 miles to the southeast landing in Morgantown, West Virginia and promptly hit a home run by hiring Rich Rodriguez. 

When you consider Michigan’s prestigious football history, their academics, their facilities, their fan base, the national exposure they receive, you quickly realize they have built-in advantages that only a handful of other schools around the nation can match.  Now, add to the mix  an innovative, creative, dynamic, fan-friendly, exciting coach, a guy who was able to put West Virginia — West Virginia? — on the college football map and you have a program in Michigan that will be back in the BCS mix within three years.  And it may not take that long.  And one more thing: Rodriguez has no previous connections to the University of Michigan. 

Incidentally, it’s worth noting down in Knoxville that Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer, under a great deal of heat early this season, will likely remain in that position after finishing 9-3 in the regular season before losing to LSU in the SEC championship game.  Vols fans in Fulmer’s corner call this season a tribute to his greatness as a coach.  Fulmer detractors and those viewing him from a distance see it a bit differently as the Vols were three field goals away (two misses by South Carolina and Vanderbilt, and a blocked Kentucky attempt) from potentially finishing 6-6.  And now that Fulmer is in the hunt for a new offensive coordinator (David Cutcliffe is off to Duke), he would do well by following Michigan’s example of going outside the family.  Rather than bringing in a former Vols player, a former Vols coach or walking down the hall and promoting someone ill-suited to be an offensive coordinator at a place like Tennessee, why not do a legitimate national search and look at some truly gifted offensive coaches from around the country like Chip Kelly at Oregon, Steve Sarkisian at USC or Texas Tech’s Dana Holgorsen.  Wait — does that make too much sense?  

Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas

Finally, on November 16th I debated the insanity that is the whole arena of political correctness, especially as it applies to The Holidays.  Now that we’ve passed The Holidays, as it were — “The Holidays”, of course, is now the accepted term referencing Christmas (saying Happy Hanukah hasn’t seemed to draw the same ire as Merry Christmas) — I’m curious if your experience was similar to mine.  Most everywhere I went this season, I actually heard more people saying “Merry Christmas” than I’ve heard in the last three years combined.  I don’t know the reason, I don’t know if it’s just the places I shopped or visited.  But it was unmistakable.  The word Christmas has majestically reappeared, at least in Minnesota, and it’s about time.  

I don’t know why so many people, often the same ones who celebrate Christmas, are so reluctant, almost fearful, to say Merry Christmas.  We are still, overwhelmingly, a nation that celebrates Christmas.  I’ve yet to have someone tell me they’ve been offended by me saying Merry Christmas.  And if ever I did offend, I’d welcome that individual telling me so.  But it wouldn’t change my greeting . . . not in this or any other year.

To all of you, a blessed and healthy 2008!  Happy New Year!

randy moss photo, courtesy of associated press; rich rodriguez photo, courtesy sportingnews.com

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