Vikings Poor Sportsmanship

[Toy Talk]

Good sportsmanship could be compared to kicking a fella when he is down, so I get what some folks are talking about. However, no Vikings were standing in the endzone mooning anyone after a score or shouting insults; nope, they were simply playing the game. Professional football players are told to keep the notch turned up to 100% from the opening kickoff until the game is over, not to let off the gas when it might hurt the other teams feelings.

I'm a Jets fan so I know how it feels to get spanked so bad your pride still hurts the next week. However, these players get paid millions of dollars per year to be professionals for our entertainment. I do now want to see Indianapolis take there starters out and bag a game anymore than I want Brett Favre to take his foot off the gas. They play to win the game and this is the playoffs, so let's get it on!

[txteach]

In boxing you want to make sure the guy you're fighting does NOT get up. Cooney was right to add the extra shots because Norton did not technically go down. Norton could have woken up suddenly and come back on glass jawed Cooney. The Vikings were fine in scoring one more. It's not peewee football.

[Zemo]

I respect your difference of opinion on this, but comparing a touchdown pass to someone beating and unconscious fighter after the bell is not an accurate analogy. I think you're overplaying your hand a bit there.

True and the bell hadn't rung either. To me sportsmanship is patting the guy on the back after he crushed with a good clean hit or helping the guy up after you cleaned his clock. Not taking a knee cause I'm beating you so bad I feel sorry for you. If I was A Cowboy, that would make me a lot madder than scoring on me.

[Werewolf]

Well what Favre did would be equivalent to Cooney going over and punch Norton a couple of times after the bell was rung to end the fight...You just don't do it.

I respect your difference of opinion on this, but comparing a touchdown pass to someone beating and unconscious fighter after the bell is not an accurate analogy. I think you're overplaying your hand a bit there.

[Blue Meanie]

34-3 doesn't seem much worse than, say, 24-0(bitter Eagles fan here! lol)! Go Vikings!

Thing is I'm not a bitter Cowboy fan. My team sucked and I owned up to it. Go over and read the Picks thread. It's the fact that on 4th down with 1 minute left in the game you DON'T go for it when you are up that big. You take a knee and end the game. What Favre did was Bush League. Period.

Here's an example...Anyone remember the Cooney Vs. Norton fight for the heavyweight title?? Cooney comes out and beats Norton to a pulp and there's Norton up against the ropes practically unconcious. 54 seconds into the fight. Done, Cooney wins the belt. Well what Favre did would be equivalent to Cooney going over and punch Norton a couple of times after the bell was rung to end the fight...You just don't do it. I guess a lot of guys on here don't care about being sportsman...seems like that they like humiliation more than the sport. That's just sad.

[haggis]

34-3 doesn't seem much worse than, say, 24-0(bitter Eagles fan here! lol)! Go Vikings!

[BENDY]

As A Dallas Fan, I Hated It. But They Should Of Been Playing More Agressive. Hopefully Brooking Will Remember It If Favre Plays Next Year. Go Cowboys, Next Year.

[Blue Meanie]

Not sure if this was brought up or not already but just curious what others thought of the last Vikings touchdown that was scored with less than a minute to go when the game was already won?

I have heard some say that you play 60 minutes, these are professionals, and too bad, the teams should score as much as they want.

I know anyone who has ever played competitive sports knows what it feels like to get spanked....it happens to all of us.

It really bothers me when I watch my son or daughter play a soccer game, they are getting beat bad, and the other team doesn't think anything of running the score up 10, 11, 12 to zero. Back when I coached youth soccer, I tried to teach kids about being good sports as losers and good sports as winners.

If we were winning a game by a substantial margin and the kids were 8 or 9 years old and really don't understand the concept of not playing at 100%, I would usually start out moving the weaker players to offense to try to keep the scoring down and give the weaker kids opportunities to play more time in a position that they need to work on. If the scoring continues, I would quietly remove a child from the pitch and play one down or two down without letting the other team know what was going on so they could lose with dignity.

Now that my daughter is older and plays club, I appreciate that her coach will not allow them to just run scores up on other teams. If the game gets out of hand, she will tell them they have to pass it 3 times before shooting. I can also remember being on the receiving end of a team that already was beating my daughter's team 6-0 by halftime. The coach of the other team kept all the players on the field and basically played keep away only taking a shot every now and then. I appreciated it and it allowed my daughter's team to lose with a bit of dignity.

I don't know if there was a lot of trash talk between the two teams prior to the game which led to the additional score or what was up with that....I just thought it was in poor taste.

I can remember back when the Redskins were the dominate team in the NFL (I have to go back 20 years LOL), I would watch them sitting on the other's team goal line with a minute or so to go and rather than run up the score...they would just take a knee. That was when Gibbs was coaching.

Any other thoughts on this?

You summed it up for me. I completely agree with you. There isn't any respect for the game anymore. This was an unwritten rule...I guess nobody cares anymore. Sad.

[ScottA]

10 run rule in kids baseball. Pros - not so much. I have no problem in pro sports. The point is to score. Not baby the other team. If you don't like it just stop them. Pretty simple concept.

[BlackKnight]

There's no crying in baseball...and certainly not football.
Besides...instead of whining about Farve and company...the Cowboys should be apologizing to their own fans for getting spanked.

Well said .

I think what Saildog wrote in the other thread was best ...

[Zemo]

‘It's our job to score points. It's their job to stop us from scoring points,'” Childress said. “It wasn't rubbing it in. It's just taking care of business and being aggressive at the end.”


Keith Brooking-"It's the playoffs. It ain't no regular-season game. If you lose, you go home. We take no pity on them.”

[thunderbolt]

Well, the Cowboys D did let the Vikings waltz right down the field and score.

[Werewolf]

Good sportsmanship is playing by the rules and doing your best.

If I'm going to lose, I'd rather lose to someone who played honestly and gave it their all. It would be much more shameful and embarassing to lose to someone who purposely played poorly.

[megoscott]

So how does one go about explaining to our kids who are watching the game, that it is ok to run the score up in a game that is a blow out, but when they get on the field....they shouldn't do that because it's poor sportsmanship? How are kids going to learn what being a good sport in winning is when they see this type of stuff happening at the pro level?

You're a more important role model to them, so you do what you always do. You take it as a teachable moment and use it to explain to them why you think what the Vikings did was wrong and why you think it's important they act otherwise.

Personally, I think it's fine. The Cowboys were blitzing on that 4th down, they'd have creamed Favre given the chance.

[Werewolf]

So how does one go about explaining to our kids who are watching the game, that it is ok to run the score up in a game that is a blow out, but when they get on the field....they shouldn't do that because it's poor sportsmanship? How are kids going to learn what being a good sport in winning is when they see this type of stuff happening at the pro level?

Again, I think this is such a big issue for some because it was Farve. Other teams and players have done this and there were no shrill cries of poor sportsmanship. This is pro sports. They are big boys and are payed the big bucks to give it their all. Not to play half arsed to protect the fragile ego on another team.

I do not think we'd be hearing this complaint if it had been in reverse and the Cowboys had outplayed the Vikings. People would be saying that Farve was too old and should have been playing better.

School level sports.

If people are so worried about the self esteem of the losing team, why even bother to keep score. No one wins and no one loses. No one's tender feelings are hurt and there is no sense of acheivement for the victors. Heck, why even grade students anymore. A bad grade can only hurt their feelings and not at make them try harder, right?