>>>>>The New England Patriots won the coin toss, and elected to slap the living bejeezus out of the Redskins.
>>>>>
>>>>>This is a road beating that makes L.A. cop videos look more like "Driving Miss Daisy"....
>>>>
>>>>In related news... Bill Belichek is a perfect example of poor sportsmanship for running the score up.
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>>>No, poor sportsmansip would be sending out 7 instead of 11 guys on defense, telling the other team "We'll let you have the next one" or punting the wrong direction to help the other team out.
>>>
>>>This isn't youth soccer. You play 100% all the time and the idea of the game is to score points, not keep from hurting anybody's feelings. Nothing is more insulting that telling they other team "Hey, good try and consider how badly you suck you've been doing a real fine job so will just let you run up some 'participation' points."
>>>
>>>At the pro level you are supposed to find out what the score would be if both teams are giving 100% all the time. The only reason to dial it back is to take out a franchise player you don't want to risk.
>>>
>>>Anything else is insulting to the other team and to The Game.
>>
>>
>>I will go further than the standard "I disagree with you" and say you are wrong. Not being hostile, but you are. One of the unspoken rules of sports is you don't run up the score. Not only from the POV of sportsmanship but from pure self-interest. Why give the other team a grudge when there is no need to?
>>
>>Where did you get the idea that the point is to find out what the score would be with both teams giving 100%? The point is to win, period. Once the issue of winning and losing is no longer in doubt there is no secondary objective of determining the "right" score. There are no domination points or style points in the NFL standings. It. Doesn't. Matter.
>
>You seemed to be a fan of soccer or your kids play soccer so you will understand this anology. Your girls' team is ahead 3-0. Last 5 minutes of the second period. Then they find themselves in the position where they can score another goal. They are about to shoot on the goal when all of a sudden comes a load scream from the side line. This is Mike Beane yelling: "Please, don't! We already won this game" <bg>


No, at that point you don't yell at them to stop. But you don't continue to mass all your best players on offense and tell them to swarm the goal, either. This situation comes up quite often in youth soccer and with rare exceptions teams avoid running up the score. Granted, it is not the same thing as NFL football. But it's still possible to continue playing with reasonable effort without trying to see how many points you can score. That simply isn't done, and I am surprised to hear so many people here saying it should be. The Patriots-Redskins score wouldn't even be a topic of discussion (here and elsewhere) if running it up was the standard approach. Right?