Is it Time to Retire the Professional Sports Asterisk?

What is the most dreaded thing a sports player can endure aside from an accusation of steroid use, the modern day, professional sports witch hunt? While the Mitchellus Maleficarum swept across baseball, spurred on by the steroid induced heresies of Barry Bonds, another equally misused, reputation jarring accusation also plagues players of every sport. What is this weapon as overly used as misused political analogies?

The asterisk, that funny little star that tells you to look at the bottom of the page for more information, is a seemingly innocuous addition to any piece of data or statistics. But in record books the idea of that little star has become a tool of venom and distaste, an easy way to permanently lash out at those you don't like to conclusively diminish their accomplishments. In a way, it's the ultimate "get back", a chance to spike the chalice of victory just as the victor attempts to drink from it, and represents the same kind of failure of civil compromise that plagues Kenya and Georgia in the midst of their election crises.

The problem, however, is not simply in regards to just the placement of the asterisk, but the entirety of a people reluctant to yield without further contest to the legitimate winner. This occurs in many formats and platforms, and is not solely resigned to sports, though this is perhaps where the greatest amount of publicity and controversy entwines itself.

For example, an article by rivals.com inquires whether an asterisk should already await the victor of tonight's BCS Bowl Game - reasoning that between USC's amazing turn out against Illinois and the remarkable season upheaval this year surly deserves some sort of disparaging mark. Since this team isn't considered "as good" as previous teams by some, do they deserve a blemish on their victory? That is the argument posed by some.

This comes on the heels of demands that the Patriots' historic, perfect season be tarnished with an asterisk on the grounds of a tape that they were never able to utilize involving calls made by defensive coordinators of the opposing team. Amusingly, many reason that if they were caught doing it on the field, wouldn't it stand to reason that they'd have video recorded the calls at another time, and reviewed it after, or even before the game?

The answer to this question is most likely: since none of these things are against the rules. In fact, the Jets, the very team the Patriots were caught recording the signals of early in the 2007 season, confessed that they frequently recorded the Patriots' defensive signals: it was, after all, well within the league rules. Simply not for use in the locker room during the game. Since the security staff confiscated the tapes en route to the locker room well before they were able to utilize them, however, the tapes themselves had no impact on the over all outcome of the game: making an asterisk an additional punishment on top of the hefty monetary fine and the yielded first round draft pick of 2008.

Asterisks, however, should never be used as punishments: only actual markers of important or unusual information. The Patriots no more deserve an asterisk in this case, than the Colts would if they were to win the Superbowl over a controversial "crowd skip" that sounded suspiciously as though a CD track of an audience was blaring over loudspeakers in order to drown out Tom Brady's play calls.

From Roger Maris to the New England Patriots to the victor of the 2007-08 BCS Bowl Game, the asterisk has failed in its function as a denotation of peculiar information into a weapon for jealous rivals.

Therefore, it may be time to simply retire the old star - much like the jerseys of remembered players who have served their time and moved on from the sport, maybe it's that time for the asterisk too.