Give it up Patriots fans, the 2007 season was a Failure
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The 2007 New England Patriots really stirred up the dust in Perfectville. Turns out it was a false alarm. The 1972 Dolphins can rest once again, knowing that they are still the best team in NFL history. No one else can call themselves perfect, and after this year, it’s likely no one else ever will.
 Jumping up and down in glee, wearing as much Dolphins apparel as I could fit on my body, and watching FOX Sports run a segment on the 1972 Miami Dolphins, I decided it was almost worth suffering through the worst season in Dolphins history to experience that last minute of Super Bowl 42. As those final seconds were ticking away and Tom Brady got catapulted backwards like a Giant cannonball by rookie New York defensive lineman Jay Alford, everything that is right and good seemed to come together and take over in the football world.
The NFL could not possibly put this team that was caught cheating in the books as the best ever! How painful an argument it would be for the Patriots and the NFL to justify cheating like that! You may think Don Shula seems like a soddy old jerk, but he is absolutely right. If the Patriots had gone 19-0, there definitely should have been an asterisk next to their record.
Roger Goodell has, for the most part, done an excellent job in his first two years as NFL Commissioner, but figuring out the special treatment the Patriots have received this year is inexplicable. It still floors me to think that someone like Ricky Williams can be suspended for 20 games for smoking marijuana (an illegal substance, but not even a performance enhancing drug, or more simply a cheating aid), but Bill Belichick just has to write a check to the league. Are you kidding me? As for the Patriots losing their first round pick, they still have number seven over all in April, so has this team even received any punishment at all!?
The whole week before the Super Bowl there were more allegations being thrown about the “Spygate” scandal. Former Patriots’ video assistant Matt Walsh (1998-2003) says that they filmed the St. Louis Rams walk-through the day before Super Bowl 36 in 2002. The Patriots won that game 20-17. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) wants more answers as to why Goodell destroyed the tapes collected as evidence in the Spygate scandal after the Patriots beat the Jets 38-13 to open up the 2007 season.
"It could go to hearings. This is a matter to be considered by the [Senate Judiciary] Committee,” Specter told ESPN’ Outside the Lines last week.
Walsh, now a Golf Pro in Maui, has said that he has evidence that could be damaging to both the Patriots and the NFL. Walsh described his job with the Patriots to be the same as Matt Estrella’s (the cameraman removed during the Jets game).
"If they're doing a thorough investigation -- they didn't contact me," Walsh told ESPN.com. "So draw your own conclusions. Maybe they felt they didn't need to. Maybe the league feels they got satisfactory answers from everything the Patriots sent them."
As you can see, this whole situation is fishy, and it points to all the wrong conclusions. How long have the Patriots been doing this? Were they really filming teams before Super Bowl games? Are we going to have to put an asterisk next to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s whole career with the Patriots? This could get as serious as the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. Why should Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire have to testify in Federal court and not the Patriots organization? Everyone is being accused of the same thing: cheating!
This all comes full circle to what I started out saying: the greater good has taken over. The football sands have sifted and blown, but finally molded into what is ultimately right. The Patriots could not have won that game yesterday; they simply weren’t allowed to. Bad doesn’t triumph, cheaters don’t win, and karma will always come back to bite you in the rear-end.
 The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17-0 with one of the most dominating rushing attacks in NFL history (rushing for 2,996 yards in only 14 games, and posting two 1,000 yard rushers: Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris). They did it for the most part with a backup quarterback: Earl Morral. They had the number one offense, the number one defense, and the number one special teams unit. They gave up an average of only 12.2 points per game while shutting out three opponents (including the Patriots, 52-0). Then, somehow, even though they were perfect, they played the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh.
Although their statistics and achievements are top of the line, and in some cases the best ever, the way they did it is even more impressive. They didn’t cheat, they were respectful, and you would never catch Don Shula running up the score. This is a big reason the Miami Dolphins are one of the most storied and proud franchises in NFL History (they are also coincidently the winningest). The Patriots on the other hand, maimed mostly by the disrespectful and cold-hearted play of the 2007 season, should not be proud, but rather ashamed.
It was great to see the Patriots get beat by another franchise with a proud and storied history yesterday. The New York Giants, like the Dolphins, have won Super Bowls, but have also suffered through some painful seasons. Unfortunately, the Dolphins quandaries have been more recent, but it is all relative. Giants fans, like Dolphins fans have withstood the test of time and have stuck with their team.
Patriots fans? Well, you have to hand it to Bob Kraft. He’s a true Patriots fan, and an excellent businessman. When Bob Kraft bought the team in 1994, the Patriots sold out every game for the first time in its 34 year history. Of course, a lot of that can be attributed to Bill Parcells (now with the Dolphins), who posted a 10-6 record that season and took the team to the playoffs for the first time in 8 years.
 Anyway, my point is that since 1994, Bob Kraft has shipped cruise-ship-sized bandwagons into Foxboro with the biggest fair-weather fans I have ever seen! Patriots fans love to root for a winner (after all it’s really easy), they love to root for Tom Brady, and somehow, they love to root for Bill Belichick (probably the most un-lovable person on the face of this planet).
However, what Patriots fans do not love to do is embrace history, and they scrutinize anyone else who does, like the Miami Dolphins. Having a rich history is a huge asset, and unfortunately for the Patriots, the history being written right now is not only poor, but completely tainted with asterisks.
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