The most absurd headline of the year comes from a major news source (The Sporting News) and a writer I frequently agree with, Mike Florio: “Pete Carroll Should Lose His Job.” In the wake of the NCAA findings that USC will be severely punished for its blatant and numerous rules violations, Florio reaches the conclusion that the man at the helm of this collegiate football scandal should lose his new pro-football job. While sharing his sentiment, “fairness dictates that a consequence apply,” I think Carroll will always carry the consequence with him as an invisible badge of shame worn beneath his warm, wry smile.
The shame is shared by Bill Belichick each time he is looked upon or coached against. For those in the know, we don’t look at him or other notorious cheaters the same way again. It is a scarlet letter, though invisible to the uninformed and therefore irrelevant, emblazoned on the hearts and minds of those who matter most, the fans. For the perpetrators of the offenses, the people they most want to impress (their peers), know best how their conspiratorial acts have effected not just the outcome of games in which they competed, but even the storylines of their own careers.
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