The Suck For Luck Movement:
Most are plenty aware of the current “Suck For Luck” movement taking place in South Florida and about nine other NFL cities, in which fans are actively rooting for their teams to lose in order to land the No. 1 pick and draft Stanford QB Andrew Luck, generally considered the best prospect of the past 15 years or so. source
John Madden - former NFL analyst and Hall of Fame coach - on the prospects of Andrew Luck:
I’ve been watching the NFL for years, and I don’t remember a more automatic, (for) sure thing.
Ok, the talent is there and some fans may root against their team to get Luck. But can it be true that the teams themselves are down with the Suck for Luck movement?
First of all, in order to tank a season, you must have some combination of the owner, director of player personnel/general manager, coach, and player(s) involved. So you conspiracy theorist, I will indulge you in a game of Who will tank the season in a quest to get Andrew Luck?
The Owner?
The owner would have to direct his GM and coach to make personnel changes detrimental to his team's on-field success, or instruct his coach to not make necessary game planning adjustments to help the team.
I doubt it
Coaches, GMs and players have professional pride. In their highly competitive world, playing on a losing team is auditioning for next team because of the inevitable changes that happens to a losing team.
Let’s say they are told by owner to tank season or in other words: Coach/player(s), we need to lose to get Andrew Luck; and oh BTW, after the losing season, I’m gonna use you guys as the scapegoats so prepare to be fired/released.
Remember folks!
The General Manager and coach, it is their job is to bring in winning players, game plans and strategies; failure to do so and they risk not only being part of the personnel change, they tarnish their personal integrity, reputation and legacy.
Players buying into the Suck for Luck, just asked Dolphin Jason Taylor
It’s ridiculous. Acknowledging it is condoning the stupidity. It’s illegal for a player to throw a game whether it’s for pay or for a pick. People are talking about ruining the integrity of a game for a draft pick…. Nothing amazes me anymore. There is no tanking, no ‘Suck for Luck’ in this locker room.”
It never would come down from upstairs to lose games. But if it did, there would be a revolt. Tony Sparano would quit before he let that happen. There would be no team on the field, because everyone would walk out of the locker room before that happened. source
Suck for Luck, you can put that baby to rest because in the words of the immortal Vince Lombardi...
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
"In my NFL career I was taught that a team has to do whatever it can do to get an advantage over the competition, and that cheating is considered okay as long as you don't get caught." ~ Martin Chase,retired NFL player
ReplyDeleteArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Chase
With mentalities like that, it's no suprise as to why all this talk about "Suck for Luck" has surfaced. It's no suprise why coaches who record other teams' defensive signals (Belichick) can still be labeled as a "defensive genius." And it's also the reason why it would not be such a "shock" if teams do attempt to stoop so low as to throw their entire season down the drain for a "God-sent QB." As ridiculous as it sounds, it's still possible. Would these GM's/Owners ever admit to condoning this behavior? Absolutely not. But with statements such as the one above, I don't put ANYTHING pass these greedy soul-less owners and GM's. This is why I despise professional sports. Folks this is no longer a game; this is purely a BUSINESS. You don't have to "love" the sport to succeed. If you love money then all you need to know is how to bring $$$ to the organization. If these owners have to sell their souls (which most of them are already heavily indebted to the devil) then that is what's going to happen. So now they become "pimps." The players are now their "hoes." And if the GM instructs the players to perform as if they've never seen a football before, they better do it if they want to get paid.
Ok so maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But you get what I'm saying. The terms "ETHICS" and "INTEGRITY" ARE no longer in the "Athletic Bible." They have been totally excommunicated. Throwing a season would be perfectly normal...if you have no conscious about it.
@Alycia you say:
ReplyDelete"Folks this is no longer a game; this is purely a BUSINESS. You don't have to "love" the sport to succeed. If you love money then all you need to know is how to bring $$$ to the organization. If these owners have to sell their souls (which most of them are already heavily indebted to the devil) then that is what's going to happen."
Amen, I agree with you 100%....anyone that doesnt think this is what happens in big business investments - cheating to get ahead - simply is not paying attention to wall street.
Some folks are naively hold on to the fantasy of sports integrity, like a lil child holds on to the fantasy of Santa Claus.
One other note, the great Vince Lombardi talked about - in the book When Pride Still Mattered - that the sports world has always been corrupted by money, cheating and influence.
Just think the 1919 - almost 100 years ago - the baseball world series was fixed by the mob