Playing the R-Card

Well, the 2005 NFL season is now complete and boy, you better have respected it.

It seems this season more than any other, teams weren't playing for millions of dollars. They weren't playing for division titles. They weren't even playing for the Super Bowl.

No way. Nowadays in the NFL, you play for respect.

How many times was the tired respect cliché dragged out? If I had a nickel for every time I heard it, I would have trouble fitting under the salary cap.

How difficult can it be to get respect? The NFL consists of say 650 players or so. All these jobs are hotly-contested and thousands of football players in colleges across the United States compete for positions on high-profile college teams with the hopes of being spotted and selected to play for big dollars on the world's biggest sports stage.

Those who make it to the NFL must, by definition, get respect. They are the best of the best.

But you wouldn't think so from listening to the players and teams themselves.

By their reasoning, the only ones who truly can respect them are ... well, it seems no one can truly respect them.

Where did this "us against the world" mantra begin?

Not surprisingly, the New England Patriots appear to be the creators and main proponent of this carefully scripted image.

Listen to Patriot Rodney Harrison back in January 2004.

"I got so tired, every time I turned on (ESPN's) 'SportsCenter' and not getting any credit," said Harrison, who had an interception and a forced fumble in the Patriots' 24-14 victory over the Colts in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. "It fueled the fire. No one gave us any respect. No one gave us a chance."

What channel is ESPN in Harrison's universe? Every time I tune into "SportsCenter," I think I am watching Patriots TV.

When Harrison went into this tired line, the Patriots had already won a Super Bowl and had just beaten the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game.

Ty Law continued the party line.

"I got tired of that stuff," Law said. "We don't get any respect. What about our team?"

What indeed. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I was thinking back then that I wasn't real impressed with Peyton Manning's chances against the Patriots.

While the "Rodney Dangerfield no respect" act seems somehow connected to the Patriots, they don't have exclusive rights. In a Boston Globe article about Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, there is some idea that Pro Bowl QB McNabb doesn't get his due since:

"To some, McNabb simply hasn't gotten the credit he deserves and as an example, they point out that even in the ad campaign in which he stars, the one for Campbell's Soup, it's his mother who steals his thunder."

Wait a second, I am confused.

So McNabb doesn't get enough respect and that is reflected in the fact that his mom somehow had better lines in a Campbell Soup commercial?

We have all seen commercials that use athletes. It isn't too difficult for them to be upstaged. Wooden acting, predictable dialogue, and "football simulations" that more resemble Atari 600 video games all make it almost impossible for the athlete not to be upstaged.

Although I have to say, Donovan's mom is not Meryl Streep in those commercials, either.

Oh, and the timing of this article, just before the Eagles played in the Super Bowl against the Patriots.

How does the Super Bowl starting QB of the four-time NFC Championship Game participants not get respect? What does this have to do with soup?

How does this message keep getting legs?

Media.

The media have completely bought into this respect as a motivator storyline. Once again, our friends at ESPN continue the Patriots legacy. Kieran Darcy wrote this:

And they are not worried about what the rest of the world thinks. "I think we earned respect last year," said Tom Brady. "And if we didn't, then people are just too ignorant, too stupid to realize."


They might still be underdogs. But the Patriots are playing like champs. That nobody can deny.

This was written two games into the season following the Patriots' Super Bowl season. The Patriots had also just won their first two games by a combined score of 74-21.

Talk about toeing the party line.

It isn't often that you actually hear anyone say they don't respect an opponent. Usually, any interview between teams or coaches sounds more like a love-in with most avoiding providing "bulletin board" material for their opponents.

However, Kansas City Chief RB Priest Holmes did once say:

"I would like to commend Marvin [Lewis] on a well-done job and having his team fired up and being ready to battle," said Holmes. "I still have no respect, really, for the Cincinnati Bengals. The players, I do — Marvin because I actually had a few years that I spent with him in Baltimore, and I still respect him and the players. But the organization, I still care very little about, and I think that if they are prepared to go where we are going, we shall meet again.

"I've never lost to them, so for me to lose now, it definitely tears my heart apart. That's why I can say I do respect the players and the coach. But as far as the organization itself, I don't, because they're not used to winning. So for them to win now, I'm excited for them. But at the same time, we should have definitely took that (game)."

Well, he sort of doesn't respect them.

But how does Bengal coach Marvin Lewis respond when a year later three of his players are selected to the Pro Bowl, the most since 1990?
"We know the league gives us respect, and that's the most important thing."

So, respect is the most important thing. Not winning. Not titles. Respect.

But maybe there is room for respect in the biggest game of the year, also.

If you asked Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger about respect, here is what you heard (from the Palm Beach Post):

"Now you want to talk to us?" yelled Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had just helped his team clinch a trip to Super Bowl XL. "Where have you been the rest of the season?"

Not five minutes had passed before the Steelers were collectively turning their third postseason victory into a Rodney Dangerfield stand-up routine. No respect, they said. No respect at all.

A few days later, however, Pittsburgh has a new problem on its hands. Turns out they got what they asked for. In next week's Super Bowl in Detroit, the Steelers are favored to defeat the Seattle Seahawks by four points.

"We'll probably still think we're underdogs," Roethlisberger said. "If no one else believes in us, that's fine with us. We know the mentality that we need to take into the game."

Someone forgot to tell Big Ben that his team was almost an instant four-point favorite in the Super Bowl.

And Steeler coach Bill Cowher must have missed the point spread, also. He had his designated home team Steelers wear their white visitor uniforms for the Super Bowl.

But then, how much respect could Cowher have? He is only the longest-tenured NFL head coach at the moment and has taken his team to the Super Bowl twice and the AFC Championship Game five times.

But wait, here is the seal of approval (from the Boston Herald):

"Rodney Harrison is about respect. And if you deserve it, he's going to give it to you — no matter what colors you wear."

You guessed it, Harrison was ready to knight Cowher with respect.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. No wonder Aretha Franklin was invited to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl this year.

Anything else would have been ... disrespectful.