AFC Beasts from the East

This weekend, the NFL’s American Football Conference sends its four remaining playoff teams to battle for the right to play in the AFC title game next weekend.  Step back, folks, there’s nothing to cheer here, and here’s why ---

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens are anchored by linebacker Ray Lewis, who was implicated in the fatal stabbing of two men outside a bar in Atlanta shortly after the 2000 Super Bowl.  Murder charges against Lewis were dismissed, partly due to lack of evidence (the white suit Lewis was wearing that night mysteriously disappeared), and partly due to Lewis agreeing to testify against two of his friends and admitting that he obstructed justice by warning his friends to keep their mouths shut before the police were able to interview them. 

By nature, Ray Lewis is a leader, not a follower, so it’s reasonable to assume that he was much more involved in this brawl than anyone is letting on.  Unfortunately, the only people who might have shed some light on what really happened that dark night were the two dead victims.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Would you rather have a murderer or a rapist leading your team?  Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, nicknamed “Big Ben” by sportswriters for his on field exploits is becoming just as well known for his off-field exploits over the last couple of years.  A Lake Tahoe hotel employee sued him for sexual assault in July 2009.  He was then charged with the sexual assault of a college student in May of 2010 near Atlanta.  “Big Ben” wasted no time in hiring the same lawyer that got Ray Lewis off on the murder rap years earlier. 

While it appears “Big Ben” has managed to avoid any serious jail time in connection with these two alleged assaults, even if it’s through secret financial settlements, the National Football League decided that his reckless behavior merited a suspension for the first six games of the 2010 season.

New England Patriots

When your team represents an entire region of the country, instead of just a city, I would expect there’s additional pressure to win games at any cost.  The win at all costs philosophy should include a provision to win honestly.  Patriot head coach Bill Belichick proved that he wasn’t up to the challenge of winning honestly. 

The NFL penalized the Patriots’ a draft pick and fined Belichick personally a half million dollars in 2007 for videotaping the opposing team’s defensive signals on the sidelines.  There have been rumors for years that Belichick had illegally videotaped sideline signals from various teams, as well as entire practices when the St. Louis Rams were preparing to play New England in the 2002 Super Bowl.  In spite of the loss of a 2008 draft pick and the fine, the NFL didn’t require the Patriots to forfeit any games or Super Bowls that they may have won as a direct result of their cheating. 

In an insult to fair-minded sports fans everywhere, the Associated Press even voted Belichick the 2007 Coach of the Year.  Fortunately, following the 2007 season the New York Giants upended the previously undefeated Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl, giving sports fans their only real consolation that playing within the rules can result in a win in the end.

New York Jets

As gratifying as the 2008 New York Giants win over the Patriots was, New York is a two- team town, and the New York Jets are easily the sleaziest team in the NFL this season, led by an equally sleazy coach in Rex Ryan. 

While rumors of Ryan’s videotaped foot fetishes might be embarrassing to the NFL, the Jets, and Ryan personally, I’m willing to accept Ryan’s explanation that it’s a personal matter and move on.  We don’t have to move far.  The NFL recently sent a warning to this year’s playoff teams to watch the trash talking after Ryan and some of his Jets’ players crossed the decency line with their comments about their upcoming game against the Patriots.  Earlier in the season, Ryan’s profanity-laced tirades on the HBO series Hard Knocks raised quite a few eyebrows, as did the $50,000 fine he paid last year for flipping off Miami Dolphin fans at a mixed martial arts match in Florida. 

Apparently, Rex Ryan hates the Dolphins with a passion best reserved for pasta.  The NFL fined the Jets $100,000 after one of Rex Ryan’s assistant coaches setup an illegal wall of players along the sidelines and tripped a Dolphins player as he ran past with a punt return.  Ryan denies any knowledge of the assistant coach’s illegal tactic, but that’s the typical response to any unsavory incidents involving the Jets team.  Jets owner Woody Johnson (who would name their kid Woody Johnson?) said that the Jets would work on making their organization incident-free, but knew that they were “bound to have some.” 

That may explain why the NFL was so frustrated by Brett Favre’s alleged misbehavior with several females while quarterbacking the Jets, and the Jets’ subsequent denial that anything untoward ever happened. 

There was also a separate NFL investigation following an incident with a female TV reporter who felt uncomfortable in the team’s locker room during the Hard Knocks episodes.  It sounds like women everywhere should be very wary of working anywhere near an organization run by Woody Johnson. 

Of all the teams in this year’s playoffs, the Jets are as undeserving as anyone to win it all.