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The teams that blame someone other themselves for their loss are only asking for more losses.
I think BB knows this very well. That's why he always focuses on the ways our performance has fallen short, even when we win.
If you lose because "the other team cheated," "the refs were against us," "we had some bad luck," there's nothing for you to fix.
It's hard to deal with reality if you refuse to see it.
So all in all, it's good for us when others blame their loss on our cheating. It diminishes their ability to fix their own problems and it annoys our guys.
BINGO, we have BINGO!
That's exactly how I see it. As annoying as it is to see Reno Mahe saying "really, we won that Super Bowl," and calling for an ex-post-facto forfeit, and McNabb asking when he can get his ring, it's gratifying to know that it detracts from their focus on what is, to talk about what should have been.
To me, it's an emotional reaction, and one that's highly suspect anyway. Come on. You really think the team you couldn't hustle to beat was unbeatable because they cheated, Donovan? You really think we gave you "the flu" via camera? No more than the Colts gave the Pats the flu. But where do we hear about the Pats having the flu in the Colts game? ESPN. Message boards. Not from players or coaches.
They know better, even when "next year" is seven hard months away. Bill Belichick said the usual "they were the better team that day..." And that's how a winner accepts a loss: acknowledging that there is only one measure of who is the better team, i.e., whether the team won.
Internal locus of control. You will find it among those who win in any arena. External locus? You will find "flashes in the pan" with an external locus of control, people swept into a position or a victory by forces that are truly beyond their control... but unless they recognize their own responsibility for their own success, they will never remain in that position for long.
Okay except the really really rich ones. But even then, the monied families famously tend to dissipate as their young embrace hedonism.
PFnV