http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:31:07 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/17/102118.php#comment-696286 Yeah, maybe they were borderline examples but the Esks considered it cheating. They were not "legal" shoes. The second example was about tech. I don't think Cousineau was on that team. I think he came in the early 80s for a brief time. 696286@blogcritics.org Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:31:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/17/102118.php#comment-696276 was tom cousineau playing on that montreal team? i'm not sure if your examples are cheating...were there expressed rules against what those teams did? there's a famous american football game where the ny giants changed from cleats to sneakers in the second half to be able to play on a frozen solid turf. they won the game. that's not cheating, they just changed shoes. 696276@blogcritics.org Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:05:51 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/17/102118.php#comment-696266 In 1977 the Montreal Alouettes beat the Edmonton Eskimos in the Grey Cup. It was something like -140c outside. The turf was a sheet of ice in Montreal. To get a grip on the field, players for the Als nailed some staples under their shoes. Result? While the Esks slipped and slided everywhere, the Als made for the endzone in a 41-7 romp. Was this cheating or just plain being smart? Esks players will tell you cheating I am sure. And then there was the 1954 World Cup. Easily, Hungary was the single most dominant soccer nation. No one came close. NOBODY. The game conditions were wretched for the game. Luckily for the Germans, a German shoe manufacturer had come up with the prototype for the modern soccer shoe. The German soccer team bought the shoes and Adidas was born. When Adidas approached Hungary, the Hungarians said, "Thanks, but we're good." Result? Germany, after getting thrashed 8-1 against Hungary earlier in the tourney, won the final 3-2 in one of the most improbable victory in World Cup history. Imagine that, even with the advantage on the pitch on the field, the Germans were still being outclassed by the Hungarians. This is a case of technology have a direct impact on a game. Of course, it didn't hurt that Hungary didn't have the interest to try out the shoes. All this being said, something tells me we can come up with hundreds upon hundreds of stories like these in which cheating and technology determined the outcome of a game in sports history. 696266@blogcritics.org Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:24:43 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/17/102118.php#comment-696007 And even the old notion of "no cheating went on back in the heyday" isn't exactly true - Bobby Thompson's 1951 pennant-clinching home run was aided by a stolen sign. So regarding forgiveness from the general public, it's simply a matter of what the broken rule is, and is the punishment reasonable enough. 696007@blogcritics.org Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:39:00 EST