ColumbusSports.com : Your place to stay informed and talk about the sports scene and sports teams in and around Columbus.

Draws are unarming

I'm talking about the TIE, the kiss your sister unsatisfying result we either experience or avoid in the sporting world. It's that unspoken subject swept under the rug, or else it's the undesireable horror we do everything to skate around, as with the modern NHL. But why? What is so evil about grunting, sweating athletes leaving their hearts and blood on the field but coming away neither victor nor loser? Sometimes it seems we just can't stand it that we've watched or played a game and someone didn't win. It's gone so far to the extent that we contrive artifices to guarantee there's a winner when maybe there shouldn't have been. So let's dig deep in our psyches about some interesting or famous ties and tiebreakers, and reflect on whether they should be or shouldn't have been.

Cooper avoided defeat in 1992

Ohio State 13, Michigan 13 -- This 1992 stalemate was christened by OSU president Gordon Gee as one of the Buckeye's "greatest wins" ever. Many scarlet blooders scoffed at the quote, but should we really have disagreed back then? Remember, say-hey greys then weren't cemented in a 5-0 and 7of 8 winning streak against the team up north like we are now.  Actually, John Cooper was 0-4 against the Wolverines at the time and it was widely known he'd be fired if disaster hit again. The Buckeyes had lost 6 of 7 against their archrival, and no overtime system existed. Thank God and Brutus!! A tie, with no chance of the enemy ruining it in overtime saved Cooper's job and helped OSU to start to get over the hump, actually winning for the first time in 7 years in 1994. Can we even imagine if Michigan had been allowed to win in a fourth overtime on a fictitious field goal or an artificially required two point conversion after a switch-off 25 yard possession turn? Great indeed, we might now say in retrospect. Anyway you look at it, they don't play 'em like this anymore, and there might be a little nostalgic tear to that.

Vick was dogged for the last NFL tie

The NFL (Case study 2008 -- Bengals 13, Eagles 13) -- OK, based on each of these games and common superstition, the number 13 is certainly not a winner. It certainly wasn't for Donovan McNabb last year in the River City, and that was before he was hounded by Michael Vick but after he was dogged by a temporary demotion. The craziest thing about this draw was that McNabb, a well paid professional QB, admitted afterwards that he thought the teams would just keep playing until somebody won. He had never heard of a tie at that level. Well, no, that's not exactly how it works in the NFL, Donovan and if you ask me it shouldn't be, but maybe not why you're thinking. The sudden death rule is just a bogus gimmick that prevents the teams from just playing out a fifth "quarter" to determine win, lose or draw, with "draw" being a perfectly acceptable outcome in the end after a full overtime period. No doubt, though, the sudden death anomoly of the No Fun League probably contributed the the soup man's misunderstanding. We all get weirded out when a professional game with millions of dollars of salaries and Las Vagas bets on the line can be determined after regulation without one team being allowed to touch the ball.  By chance, though, neither the Bengals or Eagles had anything to complain about or any more to expect. McNabb fumbled and threw 3 picks, and the Bengals dropped another one in OT and missed a final FG too. Interestingly, Michael Vick had been involved in the last previous NFL tie, a 2002 soul-sucking 34-34 staredown against the Steelers. Maybe he'll get another chance at such infamy this year.

A winner, but not from hockey

The Not Hockey League -- Nothing screams bi-polar psychosis more than encouraging teams to play to a draw, and then changing the rules and requiring them to play a completely different sport to determine the eventual winner. Well, that's today's NHL. You get a point for tying, so the team is rewarded for not winning. I can actually handle that. If the Blue Jackets have played the whole regulation game and a 4 on 4 overtime and the score is equal, I can go home without another $8 beer and still be satisfied. But wait, the hockey game is over and now the teams are going to play a completely different and much lamer game called "shootout". And it's just for one more point, with the loser keeping it's earned tie point!  Why does the nonsense of "shootout" have to exist? It astounds me that a major sport has decided to erase its rules and play a dumbed down version of an exciting game just for the dubious distinction of determining an arbitrary winner in a regular season game. Let' em play, let 'em tie if that's what happens after OT, Mr. Bettman.

Ties at the White House

First Place Fakes? -- Once again, the Columbus Crew are in first place with the most points in Major League Soccer (MLS). A great follow up to last year's dominating championship, you ask? It's a toss-up, really, if you do it by the numbers. The White House honored champions of last year were 17-7-6, with the most points and wins in the league by far. This year the Massive is an equally impressive 10-3-9. Incredible --  only 3 losses in 22 games, and a 20 game home "unbeaten streak" ongoing. But nine ties? Actually, at one point the Crew was sitting at 0-2-5. Really -- no wins in their first seven games coming off an impressive championship season. And in a sport that plays only 30 games, not 80, not 162!  But that meant the Massive had only lost 2 of 7 as well, and finding ground in those initial 5 points Guillermo Barros Schelotto and company have ridden five straight victories and a 6-0-2 run to a first place season again. But what if MLS required a shootout this season? With the pathetic start the Crew endured, would it have started 1-6 instead of 0-2-5?  Maybe we should praise the draw and learn to love it, like Peter Sellers and the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. Love it or hate it, the tie has given the Crew the points it needs this year to be poised agian for the playoffs.

Any favorite tie stories or thoughts by our readers? Love it or hate it? Let us know -- but at least we have comfort that the Buckeyes won't end up at 13-13 with USC or Michigan this year. 

Tags: cincinnati bengals, columbus blue jackets, columbus crew, crew, ohio state buckeyes, ohio state football