But it does matter. If I'm playing tennis against my 12 year old nephew I don't try to stuff it down his through on every shot. But competative professional athletic involves very highly skilled, highly payed people who want to know that every point they score has meaning. If I go soft on defence, I'm insulting your offense. If I dial back my offense, I am saying you aren't very good so I'll take pity on you.

In a league that pre-supposes parity, to play at anything other than full tilt is condescending and demeaning of the other team. All that is fine for children's games, but there needs to be some level of competition where victories have meaning and the defeated knows that they got the absolute best effort, all the way, of the team that beat them.

No asterisks.



>>>>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.
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>>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."
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>>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.
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>>Anything else is insulting to the other team and to The Game.
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>
>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?
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>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.