Dolphins insulted by Patriots

Published On December 8, 2012 | By Jill Saftel

Whenever a story deals with the notion of one professional sports team feeling “disrespected” by another, you just know it’s going to be good.

In Week 13, the Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 23-16, and in the final quarter they went on a 16-play drive, running the ball 13 times. Of those 13 runs, six of them were identical. The Pats used the same play, a dive over the left guard, over and over against Miami – and it worked.

How dare they? Don’t the Patriots know how disrespectful it is to run the same play multiple times and have it be successful every time? If that sounds ridiculous, just see what tackle Tony McDaniel had to say.

“It really (ticked) me off,” McDaniel said, according to the Palm Beach Post. “It was disrespectful to us to run the same play over and over and be successful.

“Normally when somebody’s driving down the field you just think, ‘Well, they just had a good run there,’ but you run the same play over and over, as a competitor that (ticks) me off.”

McDaniel wasn’t alone in his hurt feelings, but his teammate recognized it’s on Miami to stop New England.

“It is disrespectful,” tackle Randy Starks added, “but you’ve got to stop it. We never stopped it, so I’d keep running the same play too.”

The Patriots certainly aren’t known for their humility, and the team has been accused of running up the score more than once, but does this really qualify as disrespectful? At the end of the day, this is professional football; the last thing on anyone’s mind come Sunday is whose feelings might get hurt.

 

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About The Author

Jill studies journalism at Northeastern University, covers Hockey East for College Hockey News and is the sports editor for The Huntington News. You can follow her on Twitter at @jillsaftel, just don't ask her to choose between hockey and baseball, it's impossible.