Thoughts on Other People’s Thoughts: The Value of Winning Titles

By: Isaiah | April 20th, 2009

I’m not necessarily one for parsing the words of commentators, most of whom say whatever comes to mind rather than what they really think. Certainly most of them do it without view to the consequences and are lampooned for it by many people (for instance in the brilliance that used to be FJM), but sometimes they say things that get to the heart and soul of the problems with so many sports, sports fans, and thoughts on sports in general.

Our very own Ray Hudson, our dear RayRay, GolTV’s attempt at a Tommy Smyth on speed with an equally fast thesaurus, was once again in fine form during Barça’s game at Getafe. Now, I actually think I like Ray Hudson, despite his obvious faults (talks too much, never lets Phil say anything — perhaps these are not faults). Still, when he said that Barça’s current side could be considered one of the greatest if not of all time, then at least of the last couple of decades because of their beautiful play if it wins championships, I nearly freaked out, smashed my TV, and threw myself out of the window. What self-respecting watcher of any sport ever would say such a thing?

Perhaps my visceral reaction is confusing to some, but think about what Ray Hudson said for a moment. The logic goes like this: Good teams play beautifully. Great teams win titles. As in, if you do not win titles, you are not worthy of greatness. This is, to me anathema to everything that FC Barcelona stands for. The concept of beauty has absolutely nothing to do with success. Nothing whatsoever. Which was the better team in the 1970s, Argentina or the Netherlands?

In a world with no runners up, 2nd place really is 1st loser and is generally consigned to anonymity or only remembered by trivia nerds. However, there is little to suggest that beauty and success are necessarily intertwined. If that were the case, Real Madrid would have won 0 titles in the last 5 years and Barça, who have played consistently more beautifully than most, if not all, of La Liga, would have 4 or 5 of those titles. Instead they have 2 and none in the last 2 season.

This is a big pet peeve of mine and I’m going to go ahead and let it all out right here: just because something is successful does not mean it was the correct thing to do, nor just because something was successful does it mean it was better than everything else. For instance, if two people are in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness in the middle of the winter with no coats, when it is 90 below 0 Fahrenheit and they have enough wood to keep warm for a fully week, but one of them decides to venture out into wilderness to seek help while one of them decides to stay inside and stay warm in hopes that someone will respond to their distress calls on the radio, and the one who goes outside encounters a party of searchers and the one inside dies because the house collapses on him, that doesn’t make the one who went outside without a coat on the one with good decision-making skills.

These are, to me, the same concepts. Doing things the right way and getting a bad result is still the right way to do things, while doing things the wrong way and getting a good result is still the wrong way to do things. Just because a Hail Mary pass succeeds once doesn’t mean you should throw one on every play. Because of the modern game’s parity in the upper echelons of the European leagues, a singular moment can change the outcome of a season. If Barcelona makes it to the final and takes on ManU and Barcelona has 40 shots on goal, but doesn’t score because of some absolutely stunning keeping by van der Saar and then a bad call by a ref gives one of Cronaldo’s dives a penalty and ManU win the Champions League 1-0, how does that make Barcelona’s season not one of the greatest ever? Even better, what if Barcelona scores a goal that is called back for offside when it clearly wasn’t and then Arsenal, who beat ManU in the semis because RvP plays out of his mind and scores a hat trick at Old Trafford, all off of free kicks, shoot a ball along the goal line that is called a goal even though it’s not really clear if it really crossed over or not? Suddenly Barcelona is at the mercy of forces outside of themselves, but, of course, that means they weren’t that great anyway, cause they couldn’t overcome such obstacles.

I’m not saying this year’s incarnation of FCB is one of the greatest ever, but to say that it is specifically not because it has won no championships is daft. Were Arsenal’s Invincibles not an amazing team? Well, sorry, guys, your perfect Premiership season means nothing whatsoever because you only won 1 title that year. Imagine if you’d won the CL? Oh, well, then we’d have reason to talk about your beautiful, brilliant play. Instead, we’re going to call you losers because that same year you didn’t win the Champions League.

My point is mainly not to judge teams by their titles first and all other things second. In a league, perhaps, but not in a tournament where teams do not play every other team. There is totality that must be considered, like the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990s who won nothing in real life, but were accurately portrayed in Tecmo Super Bowl. That Ray Hudson would stoop to such commentary lows is disappointing not only for him personally, but also for the listeners, who have to hear this sort of drivel. John Madden retired, why can’t I stop hearing these sorts of things?