Elementary My Dear Watson.

Being a tri-owner of a radio sports station certainly has its perks. Invitations to festive gatherings, the finest seats to sporting events and of course signing autographs for our adoring fans. But being an owner of a radio station isn’t all fun and games. There are times where giving back is part of the celebrity job description. Last week I was asked to speak to Beersheba Elementary, home of the cougars! I was very surprised how well the kids spoke English. After giving a speech to a 5^th grade class on the keys to success I took some questions from the audience. Some asked me what it was like to be a celebrity; others asked how it feels to be a tri-owner of a radio station. But then, Mikey Ben-Smith asked a question. He asked why did the Colts lose their final two games of the 2009 regular season. I said because coach Caldwell out a higher importance on going to the Super Bowl then he did going 16 and 0. Mikey then added something weird to the conversation. He said, “Well why did the Colts lose on purpose?” I said good joke. Mikey wasn’t joking and his friend Stevie, who plays Pop Warner football, nodded his head in agreement with Mikey. I explained to Mikey the Colts did not play their starters for the entire game and both the Jets and Bills won as a result. Mikey said a team who doesn’t play their starters is a team who loses on purpose.

Conspiracies are nothing new in sports, there as old as Julio Franco. Conspiracies make for great sports talk and great blogs. Now I will explain why the Indianapolis Colts did not lose their last two games (to the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills) of the 2009 regular season on purpose.

 The goal of every N.F.L. team at the beginning of the season is to win the Super Bowl, not necessarily every game of the season, unless you’re the 2007 New England Patriots. By the time week 16 rolled around the Colts has wrapped up the #1 seed and home field throughout the playoffs. Believe it or not, the Colts were in a similar situation towards the end of the 05’ season. The Colts had wrapped up the number #1 seed by week 16 and took on the San Diego Chargers. The Colts decided to play Payton Manning and their starters throughout the game (at the time they were trying to break the ‘72 Dolphins record). Despite their efforts, the Colts lost. In the first game of their playoff run, the Colts lost to the 10 and 7 Pittsburgh Steelers in the R.C.A. dome, still exhausted from the energy it took to get 14 wins and the energy spent in the game against the Chargers. The 09’ version of the Colts learned their lesson from the 05’ version and decided to bench Manning for the 4^th quarter of week 16 and played him sparingly in week 17. This time the Colts won their first game of their playoff run and went to the Super Bowl.

Deciding when to play a player and when not play a player is a tough call in any sport. How many times has a baseball manager been chastised for not pulling his starter, or how many times has an N.B.A. coach been chastised for not resting his starters in the regular season in anticipation for a playoff run. The way to make this question simpler is to focus on what you do know. You know playing a franchise starting quarterback in a game when you have the number one seed rapped up is not a smart move. Of course there is a risk of concussion, a broken neck or even death in every football game, but those risks are only worth it in important regular season and playoff games. Although I’ve only played flag football, I still have the intelligence to know football is a game which must be played at full speed. Playing a football game half-speed is a recipe for injury. How many times has an athlete been injured in a pre-season game because they were not playing full speed?

The Colts wanted to beat the Jets, if they didn’t they wouldn’t have put Manning in for 3 and half quarters. They were trying to make a compromise, win the game and give Manning rest, so they wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of their past. For those who say the Colts lost because they were scared to face the Steelers in the playoffs, well look at what happened. The Colts were losing to the Jets at half-time of the A.F.C. title game. So they went through all of that trouble (losing to the Jets on purpose), giving up potentially a perfect season, be written in the history books, just so they could possibility potentially avoid the Steelers and then get stuck with a tougher match-up?

Did the Jets catch a break last year by playing the Colts when the Colts had nothing to play for? Absolutely, for that one week they had an advantage over all the teams who were trying to get the final playoff spot. But guess what, there were weeks in which the Jets had to play a team who came off a bye, had something to prove, or were fighting for a playoff sport of their own. Schedules all full of good breaks and bad breaks.

The final issue I want to go into, is the concept of not playing your best contrasted with the concept of losing on purpose. Even if the conspiracy theorists want to say something fishy happened in week 16, no one could say in their right mind the Colts lost to the Bills in week 17 on purpose. However, some will say since they did not play their starters they did not want to win the game. When I was in the 5^th grade I was told “can’t” is the ugliest four letter word (although I disagreed then and even strongly disagree with the concept now). I was also told “want” is the prettiest four letter word. 99 percent of the time it is true if someone really and truly wants something they can get it and in those situations the word “can’t” is obsolete.  There are levels in everything life, so too in regards to effort. Not putting in a certain amount of effort in a positive direction is not the same as putting in a great deal of effort in a negative direction.  It wasn’t as if the Colts dropped passes or fumbled balls on purpose. The Colts did not put in the same effort in week 16 and week 17 as they did to go to Super Bowl 44.

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