Chaotek Thoughts

I’m in San Francisco on business and I found out that at the base of the building I am at, was going the end point of the Torch Relay. Great, I thought–something cool to do at lunch. So we took a late lunch and the group headed down to the Embarcadero right in front of the Ferry Building. There were pro-Tibet protestors, pro-China supporters, anarchists, and general spectators like myself. It was actually pretty entertaining. The anarchists were funny, all dressed in black with bandanas covering their faces. Some were quite prepared, even wetting the bandanas in preparation for tear gas. They shouted a lot about the corrupt military industrial complex, evils of McDonalds, faked moon landings, and the war on terror/Iraq–all with little conviction or education The pro-Tibet protestors generally seemed to fall into two categories: peaceful demonstrators and complete idiots. The peaceful demonstrators, especially Team Tibet, were very organized and orderly. Idiot protestors were just chaos incarnate. My favorite was a sign stating that the US would have boycotted Nazi Olympics, so why would we cater to the Chinese? Uh, didn’t the US attend the 1936 Berlin Olympics?

Anyways, the relay was supposed to start at 1pm. At the beginning, the police were pretty strict about keeping people behind barricades. But as the minutes passed, the police force just seemed to evaporate. People started marching up and down the street. Before too long, it was pretty obvious that the relay wasn’t going to come this route–there was no order. On the news, the Mayor and police explained that they “spontaneously” decided to change the relay route because of the crowds. They said that there were too many protestors, and that the crowd was too large at the beginning of the route rather than spread evenly along the route. What a crock of shit! For one, they had previously decided that there would be no protest permits necessary, so the protesters could be anywhere they wanted. Also, the route had previously been cut repeatedly, and just that morning it was announced that the route would be cut in half again. Duh, the people are going to want to be near the beginning because it might get cut down even more. Before 1pm, for the most part the crowds were reasonable and kept behind the fences except when they were crossing the street in crosswalks. It wasn’t until the police had abandoned the task of controlling the crowd, because they knew that the relay wasn’t coming this route anyways, did the streets get taken over. By then, the decision had long since been made. And you can’t tell me that they didn’t have at least 5 alternate routes for the relay, despite the claim that the route and decision was spontaneous.

The final result: the torch relay was a regular Communist China exhibition, secretive and dodging free speech. The protesters felt somewhat victorious, they got a lot of publicity anyways. The Chinese got a mostly Tibet-less Torch Relay, as if the trick will make people forget their human rights record. Thousands of Olympic supporters, Chinese nationals, tourists and spectators got screwed out of a chance to see and photograph the Olympic torch. Oh, and free speech got a kick to the nuts–though the Patriot Act mostly killed the First Amendment anyways. And now the IOC is suggesting that the International Torch Relay may be cut for future Olympics…

As the New England Patriots are enjoying a perfect normal season, there has been some talk of adding an asterisk to the record books, noting that controversy around the Spygate scandal which resulted from the September 9, 2007 game against the Jets in which the Patriots were caught cheating. Should the perfect season record be marked as questionable? In my opinion, that’s ridiculous. Either give them the validation of their accomplishment, or punish them with a forfeit of the entire season…

The concept of an asterisk next to a record seems to go back to Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth’s homerun record in 1961. As Maris was an unpopular player, who came out ahead of the fan favorite, yet injured, Mickey Mantle. Since 2 teams had been added to the league that year, 8 games were added to the schedule. The commissioner, Ford Frick, ruled that in order to beat Babe Ruth’s record, the homeruns should be accomplished in the same number of games. Otherwise there would be two separate records, one for 154 games, and one for 162 games. The concept of adding an asterisk to Maris’ record is an urban myth, but the idea has been popularized since then–including the 2001 movie 61*.

In October 2007, track and field athlete Marion Jones admitted to lying to investigators about steroid use. By December 2007, Marion Jones was forced to return all medals earned back to September 2000, including 5 Olympic medals. Considering that she never failed a doping test during those competitions, it seems questionable to me why she had to lose all of her past wins.

Seven consecutive time winner of the Tour de France bicyclist Lance Armstrong has been plagued with accusations of steroid use. Though never proven, there have been many calls for an asterisk to be added in the record books next to Armstrong’s wins, noting that the results are questionable. There have even been VERY questionable retests of urine samples from past races to try to disqualify the champion. If ever found guilty of cheating in a single case, Lance would likely be required to return all medals and would be removed from the record books.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Andreea Rãducan tested positive for the banned stimulant pseudoephedrine. During the IOC’s evaluation of the case, it was determined that the gymnast had used a common over-the-counter cold medicine which provided “no competitive advantage at the competition” and was given to the teen by her team physician. Though the Olympic Committee, Court of Arbitration of Sport, and International Gymnastics Federation all ruled that she was “an athlete who was innocent in this situation” Andreea was forced to give up her gold medal in the all-around gymnastics. Innocent, yet she lost her valid win.

Then we come back to the Patriots. Caught videotaping the Jet’s hand signals, the Patriots were faced with a massive scandal. While the taping could not have affected the outcome of the game, it does have potential impact on future games. It also raises the question of how long this practice has been going on? Could signal taping have been used to achieve other victories, including recent Super Bowl and playoff wins? If held up to the same standard as Olympic athletes, the Patriots could have been stripped of all recent titles and been banned for the rest of the season. Even worse, the coaching staff could have been banned from the NFL for years or life if held to the same standards as Olympians…

Instead the coach was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,000, and they lost their first round draft pick. All and all, it’s a pretty light punishment in my view, as the financial benefits from a successful, even ill-gotten, season far outweigh the fines levied as punishment. While a first round draft pick may be strong, the Patriots were weighed as being the favorite for the Super Bowl well before the season started, due to some incredible pre-season trades. They should be sitting pretty good for many years, and one round of the draft in one year will hardly be noticed in the long run.

I don’t think that adding an asterisk is appropriate. It is the coward’s way out of a controversial situation. Either give it to them, or don’t. Consider the perfect season to be valid, or disqualify the season in its entirety. To add an asterisk to the record books invalidates the records.