THERE are a lot of reasons to hate what went on in the closing gasps of Sunday’s Giants-Packers game at the Meadowlands.
But violation of the “integrity of the game” is not one of them.
You can be offended by the apparent fraternization, if not collusion, between two opposing players during the playing of a game.
You can be embarrassed for Michael Strahan, who was happy to accept a tainted record. You can be angry at Brett Favre for betraying his offensive line, which would have loved to shut Strahan down the way another Green Bay line deprived Lawrence Taylor of the sack record in 1986.
You can even feel sorry for Mark Gastineau, who in spite of his other failings, has never been accused of having taken any gifts the year he set the record that now belongs to Strahan.
But you can’t tell me that what Favre and Strahan pulled Sunday compromises the integrity of the NFL, because to make such a statement implies that the NFL has any integrity to begin with.
If there is integrity in the NFL, then why does it outwardly condemn rowdy and lawless behavior by its players and fans while tacitly condoning it?
By that, I mean, allowing its powerful public-relations arms, the electronic media, to market the game as a Wild Wild West of anarchy on its pre-game shows, in its highlights shows and in its officially sanctioned electronic games?
There is not a single NFL-related story, feature, or video clip that appears on any show on any network that holds the rights to broadcast an NFL game that the league doesn’t have total control over.
So when ESPN or ABC or Fox shows football fans behaving like morons or players acting like jerks, it is with the OK of the National Football League.
Clearly, that is how the NFL wants its product to be presented, even if its official line is that The Game is sacrosanct and the playing of it is done with the most impeccable integrity.
If there is integrity in the NFL, why does it condone and even encourage illegal gambling on its games by the publishing of injury reports several times a week before each game?
I mean, who really cares if the Seahawks left guard is suffering from an inflamed pinky toe and might not play?
Oh, yeah. Gamblers.
And if it is so anti-gambling, why doesn’t the NFL bring its considerable power to bear on newspapers and TV and radio shows that make liberal use of Las Vegas point spreads?
The answer, of course, is that the league really loves the fact that half the country is hooked on betting its games, or else there really would be little point in watching any games not involving local teams.
If there was integrity in the NFL, would it allow quarterbacks to spike the football to stop the clock in the last two minutes of the second and fourth quarters? Is there any clearer example of intentional grounding – a particularly severe 15-yard, loss-of-down penalty in any other circumstance – than a quarterback deliberately firing the football into the ground?
If there was any integrity in the NFL, wouldn’t half, if not more, of the league’s players be testing positive for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs?
The stunt that Favre and Strahan pulled may have gone against the spirit of real competition, but it is no different than what UConn women’s basketball coach Gene Auriemma pulled with Nykesha Sales a couple of years ago.
It is also no different from Denny McLain grooving one for Mantle in his final season, and not too far removed from the entire Chicago Cubs infield high-fiving Mark McGwire as he rounded the bases after hitting home run No. 62.
All of those episodes were disturbing, distasteful and offensive if you buy into the notion that somehow, somewhere, there exists an “integrity” to big-time sports that cannot be violated, no matter how far into the gutter the games and their players fall.
If, however, you have come to realize that in all major sports, whether they take place at the Meadowlands, a college arena or an Olympic Stadium somewhere, the concept of integrity is a quaint reminder of days long gone, they tend not to bother you nearly so much.
Favre and Strahan may be guilty of a lot of things, but lack of integrity isn’t one of them.
They – and the league they play in – can’t lose what they no longer have.