A Discussion on Tanking

by user Tylersalt

So I'd just like to open up a discussion here. Under what circumstances is it OK to root for your favorite team to lose? Does it depend on the sport? Would you do it? For example, I would never root for a baseball team to tank, since the draft is usually a crapshoot anyway. However, in football or basketball, I think it's OK, especially if your team is quite young and probably headed for a really bad season anyway (see: 2007 Boston Celtics). I personally rooted for my Washington Redskins to lose over the last few weeks of the regular season, after they had clinched last place in the NFC East. Frustratingly enough, they ended up winning two of their last few games, ending up at 5-11, which puts them in the 6th or 7th draft spot overall. If they had gone 3-13, that draft pick would have been much closer to 3rd or 4th, and I'd frankly be a lot happier about the season and the prospects for next.

What do you think? Was I right to root against the Redskins over the last few weeks of the season? In what situation is that acceptable?

Buck FudderPee Wee

1026 days ago

Score 0

I think its OK to root for tanking in football if there is no chance for making the playoffs

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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

1026 days ago

Score 0

The US system of rewarding failure with a high draft pick has that obvious flaw. In losing is better than winning, it is a bad situation.

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TylersaltAll-Star

1026 days ago

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I dunno, I think that parity is a good thing. Perhaps as an Arsenal fan I'm being a hypocrite, but in the Premiership it's always the same 3 or 4 clubs at the top. The losers-get-high-draft picks at least ensures the hope that everyone's club has a chance to compete every year, especially in football and increasingly in baseball as well -- 7 World Series winners in the past 7 years, as well as 12 different teams participating, the Cardinals and Yankees being the only repeat participants since 2000. Baseball's success in parity is mainly because of the collective bargaining agreement and revenue sharing, but some of the parity in the NFL has to be due to the draft system. I think that parity is much better than hegemony, in that regard.

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J CunninghamVarsity Captain

1026 days ago

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Would you rather give the No. 1 pick to the team who wins the Super Bowl? That smacks of the rich getting richer, which I think is the reason the worst team gets the first pick (or the chance at it), while the defending champion gets the last pick of the first round.

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KelsdadAll-Star

1026 days ago

Score 2

As a fan, its OK to wish for a higher draft pick, but as a player, tanking is the same as fixing, without the cash payoff.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

1026 days ago

Score 0

Tanking is frowned upon by the gods of sport. Beware tankers! If you tank, prepare to face the obligatory wrath...

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J CunninghamVarsity Captain

1026 days ago

Score 4

I could never root for my team to lose, even if we were eliminated from playoff ocntention (and this is in any sport). I agree the draft in baseball is a crapshoot, but so are the NFL and NBA drafts. How many draft busts have there been? How would you feel as a Chargers fan to have rooted so hard for that No. 2 pick, only to have Ryan Leaf gag it up in the NFL? Sure, top picks worked out in places like Indy and Cincinnati, but I'd hate to root for my Redskins to go 2-14, only to have the No. 1 pick the following year turn out to be a giant dud. That would just make it worse.

As a fan of my teams, I want them to win as many games as possible. Drafts and free agency and all that be damned; as Herm Edwards once famously put it, you play to win the game. If you're out there trying or hoping to lose, then why play?

If you wanna tank the season, just stop playing.

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TylersaltAll-Star

1026 days ago

Score 0

So here's a hypothetical for you. In a 10-year period, would you rather have 7-8 years of mediocre play, with only two or three playoff runs and a championship (see: Florida Marlins), or would you rather have 8 years of better-than-mediocre play, making the playoffs 7 of those 8 times, but never even playing for a championship?

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EnyboDiv-I Stud

1026 days ago

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Tanking doesn't necessarily help in football. See Joey Harrington, David Carr, etc. Look at Randy Moss, picked at #21. All tanking does is alienate fans. If the Celtics are tanking, I hope 1 of 2 things happen: they don't get their number called early in the lottery or Oden actually does stay in college.

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MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick

803 days ago

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Isn't it a little late for Oden to stay in college?

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TylersaltAll-Star

1026 days ago

Score 1

Obviously there are some very good points, on both sides of the coin here. Let me clarify my position:

1) It is NEVER OK for a team/coach/front office/player to condone tanking, publicly or otherwise. The point that Kelsdad made about game fixing is well taken.

2) The question then is: is it OK for a fan to /root/ for their team to lose to have that *chance* at the draft? It's a chance, to be sure (see Carr, Harrington, Leaf, etc.), but when my team is 3-10 already and guaranteed to be in the basement in their division, what's the harm? High draft picks aren't sure things, absolutely. But with a competent front office, the higher the better.

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

1026 days ago

Score 0

Tanking is a terrible idea. Especially in the NBA, like the Celts are doing. You'd think they'd learned their lesson after missing Duncan...

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RomiezzoLegend

803 days ago

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Hypothetical situation: let's just say that the Red Sox already won the division, and winning or losing doesn't matter now that they're in the playoffs. The Tigers and Yankees are battling it out for the wild card. The Red Sox are facing the Tigers. Wouldn't you like to see the Tigers win instead of the Red Sox? Think about it. The games the Tigers would win, the less possible it is for the Yanks to miss the playoffs. I know, I'm a dreamer. What can I say?

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MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick

803 days ago

Score 0

I think I am like most fans in that even when my team is 1-14, I sitll root for them to win the last game of the season. The difference is that while I am rooting for them to win, I don't care if they lose. I am NOT one of those fans who complains when my bad team wins. 2 years ago in the Jets forum you should have heard the complaining when the Jets won a game to take them out of the Reggie Bush sweepstakes. The typical refrain was "typical Jets, when they are actually supposed to lose they finally go out and win." That irked me.

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MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick

803 days ago

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In 1983, the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins were locked in a head to head battle as to which team would end the season with the worst record. In March and April, the Penguins lost 13 of 16 games, including the last 6 games of the season. over the same span, the Devils went 4-11-1, winning a crucial game against the Penguins and winning the last game of the season. As a result, The Devils finished with 41 points and the Penguins with 38. As the "winner" of the battle, the Penguins got the first overall draft pick which they used to draft a then young phenom by the name of Mario Lemiuex.

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