Does Character Still Matter in the NFL?

Once upon a time, character really mattered in the NFL. 

When you discussed NFL greatness, you weren’t just talking about successful coaches or players, you were making a statement about the character of those you discussed. 

Owners like Art Rooney and George Halas. Coaches like Don Shula, Tom Landry, and Joe Gibbs. Players like Ray Nitschke, Roger Staubach, Chuck Bednarik, Walter Payton, Earl Campbell and Darrell Green.

These were men who were not only phenomenal owners, coaches and players, but also role models fans could be proud of. They conducted themselves with class and honor both on and off the gridiron, and the reputation of giants such as these contributed to the grandeur of the league we love so dearly, while building it into the juggernaut it is today.
 
To be a fan of the National Football League didn’t just mean that you were a football fan; it meant that you were a fan of football players who played the game the right way and, more importantly, who lived life the right way. 

As the players who played for Lombardi showed, the lessons that made a man into a great football player also made a man a success at home with his family and a success in his business career after football.

Today, however, a new era may be dawning on our beloved league.

The New England Patriots are poised to win the Super Bowl, becoming the first NFL team in history to go 19-0*. 

The asterisk, of course, reflects the fact that the Patriots have been found guilty of cheating during an NFL game this season by illegally videotaping the opposing team’s signals, despite repeated warnings that such activities were illegal.

The Patriots are the antithesis of what sportsmanship is supposed to be about. While the organization claims to pride itself on “class and integrity", the Patriots’ activities on and off the field indicate otherwise. As noted above, they are proven cheaters, which has badly tainted their three previous Super Bowl titles, each of which were won by the slightest of margins.  

In each of their three Super Bowl victories, the Patriots won by three points. Can anyone seriously dispute that illegally videotaping the opposing team’s defensive signals could have given the Patriots' offense an advantage enough to win those games by three points?

The Patriots also run up excessive scores on teams (as they did against Gibbs and the Washington Redskins), apparently in order to prove that they didn’t “need to cheat."

Their head coach, Bill Belichick, violates the rules of the game with the same abandon as he reportedly violates the sacred institution of marriage in his personal life.

Their quarterback, Tom Brady, is a haughty hedonist who leaves the mother of his newborn son to date a Brazilian supermodel, all the while proclaiming how “classy” the Patriots organization is.  

Other members of the team have repeatedly embarrassed themselves with their classless behavior on the field (such as Rodney Harrison’s HGH suspension or Mike Vrabel’s taunting of children in the crowd at Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium this season.) 

Perhaps those of us who are dismayed by the ascendancy of a team like this are mere remnants of a bygone era, where character mattered.

Some might argue that the Patriots ought not to be criticized, as they are merely “doing what it takes to win,” as if winning a game justifies flagrantly illegal behavior and such classless demeanor. I can’t help but wonder, however, that if by condoning such behavior, we run the risk of losing the essence of what it means to be a part of the National Football League, as a player, coach, or devoted fan.  

As Campbell recently said, “If they win the Super Bowl, I think there should be an asterisk by the Patriots' name. And if they don't win, I still think there should be an asterisk by their name. Because that's wrong. A lie is a lie.” 

Campbell knows the stakes at risk here, and it’s not merely about winning or losing a football game. 

While Commissioner Goodell deserves a great deal of credit in his attempts to crack down on bad characters in the NFL, his handling of the Patriots' “SpyGate” scandal is by far his most disappointing action as a commissioner. It resulted in the significant possibility that this year’s Super Bowl winner will be a cheating, classless team unworthy of being recognized as the champion of the National Football League. 

What would Coach Lombardi say?