Lazy Man and Money

Personal Finance Links (and on being NFL perfect)

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Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin said a week ago that he’d trade his Hall of Fame inclusion and his 3 Super Bowl rings for a perfect season. Earlier this past Sunday, he went into more detail on his reasoning, which many found curious. Irving said that there have been very few players who can say that they’ve been part of a perfect team. Since you can’t live a perfect life, if you get a chance to perfect in your professional life, that’s worth it. He made a point that it wouldn’t be an individual accomplishment like the Hall of Fame one either.

I can’t rationalize his logic. I think he’s trying to be humble and say the right things from a public relations standpoint… but I’m going to put more focus on it. Giving up 3 Super Bowl rings is significant… few people have ever done that (even fewer than people who have been part of perfect teams). If you are going to try be the “ultimate teammate”, what about taking the 3 Super Bowl rings away from your teammates such as Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith? Also if you give up your Hall of Fame credentials and opt to be another cog in the system of a perfect team, do you have a job with the NFL Network? I think no. How many of the 1972 Dolphins (the only other team agreed by all to have a perfect season) worked in broadcasting after their career?

My other thought here is that there’s too much focus on “perfect” in the NFL. It’s a by-product of the league not having too many games. You never hear a basketball, hockey, or baseball team even consider the prospect of going perfect. In baseball in particular, I think few (if any) teams ever go 11-0 in the postseason (probably due to the competition and the fact that you can’t throw your best pitcher each game). So when a team like the Dolphins finish their 17 games without a loss, it’s a great accomplishment… but I don’t think it’s any more an accomplishment than the Patriots winning 18 to start a season. We’ll never know one way or the other if the Dolphins would have won if they had to play two more games. It’s also of note that the Colts have now won some 24 regular season games in a row… an accomplishment that I consider to be way ahead of the 1972 Dolphins – especially in free agent era.

I guess I see any talk of a perfect season in the NFL, much ado about nothing. Then again, I was the one who wrote quite a bit about it a couple of seasons ago… so maybe I’m just subconsciously playing it down in hindsight ;-)

Here are some personal finance links from last week:

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