Livin' in the Past

The past is a useless place to live.

As NFL players, coaches and analysts have talked about the ramifications of the New England Patriots' espionage activities, the "what if?" question has gotten plenty of action.

For example, some Eagles players have wondered if maybe their 24-21 loss to New England in the 2005 Super Bowl wasn't so fair after all. When you're on the wrong side of a cheating incident, "what if?" is an interesting thought to entertain, and it's easy to jump to enormous -- and often erroneous -- conclusions in the process.

The human mind is funny that way.

But if sports fans allowed themselves, dozens (if not hundreds) of historical sports results could be called into question because of cheating, alleged or proven. Here's a sampling.

• The Phoenix Suns could be the 2007 NBA Champions. Phoenix had just begun to accept its physically brutal loss to the Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals when the news of referee Tim Donaghy's illicit activities broke. Somebody did a little research, found out that Donaghy was a whistle blower in Game 3, and the questions began.
  
  
• The Giants deserved to win the 2002 World Series. As word surfaced about Troy Glaus's involvement with anabolic steroids, San Francisco fans immediately thought back to 2002, when Glaus -- then on the Angels -- was literally a Giant killer in the World Series. Of course, most of us have reason to believe that a certain Giant may have had some sort of artificial edge, too.
  
  
• Throw back the Shot Heard 'Round the World. After trailing the Dodgers for most of the 1951 season, the Giants made a comeback to tie on the last day and force a playoff. In that playoff, Bobby Thompson took Dodgers' pitcher Ralph Branca deep in what is arguably the most famous home run in history. (It has its own Wikipedia page!) As it turns out, the Giants were stealing signs for the last several months of the season, which naturally made the Dodgers feel as if maybe they deserved the World Series berth.

And the list could go on. We could talk for hours about the affects of alleged or proven steroid use has had on the record books and World Series outcomes. We could talk about point shaving or betting. And of course, sign stealing.

All of these actions are egregious offenses and should be punished to the full extent of the law and the sport. But it doesn't do any good for the "victims" of the crime to go back and ask for the results to be changed; it should be enough to know that the results were not earned legitimately.

Maybe Philadelphia shouldn't have lost the 2005 Super Bowl, or wouldn't have lost had their play calls not been intercepted. But they didn't win it either, and while I wouldn't opposed to stripping New England of its title, I'm not ready to award the Eagles a ring on that basis.

A healthy mindset in life involves moving forward without dwelling on the past, regardless of how tempting that might be. Sports should be no different.