Krause: Methinks the former Miami Dolphins coach doth protest too much

He’s backpedaling now. Don Shula now says that if the Patriots run the table this season – and it’s done in accordance with the rules – then good for them. He’ll approve.Big of him.It was only a few days ago that Shula, the estimable former coach of the Miami Dolphins, invoked the name of the much-reviled Barry Bonds when talking about the Patriots and the possibility of them going 16-0.Shula, who won two Super Bowls with Miami and who coached the team when it went 17-0 (including playoffs) in 1972-73, said the other day that thanks to “Spygate,” the Patriots should have an asterisk next to their names if they go undefeated. Just like Barry Bonds, he said.This is the same Don Shula who was hired away from the Baltimore Colts in 1969, while he was still under contract with the Baltimore Colts. Just as the Patriots had to forfeit their No. 1 pick for spying, so did the Dolphins when they stole Shula from the Colts. So right off the bat, Shula is a fine one to be holding himself up as the arbiter of ethics in the National Football League.In his heyday, Shula was a member of the NFL rules committee, and apparently ruled the rules committee with an iron fist. Not so coincidentally, the Dolphins were the least-penalized team in the NFL during those years. Gee, you don’t suppose there was a correlation there, do you?And besides, we all know what happens with the rules committee, right? Your team loses the AFC championship game because the other team pulverizes you physically (remember, we ARE talking football here). So since you can’t win the game, you get the rules changed so that if the opposition even breathes on your team’s receivers next time, it gets penalized for illegal contact.Talk to Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian. He’s on the rules committee now.So Shula can stop being sanctimonious any time he wants. You can be sure there were absolutely no flies on him when he coached. You can be sure that if there was a trick, or a shortcut, or any form of undetectable skullduggery at his disposal at all, Shula availed himself of it.And so has every other NFL franchise that has any interest at all in winning. Everybody wants to get the upper hand. It’s just a question of degree.Shula is worried that the Patriots are about to wipe his one remaining legacy off the books. There are certainly enough coaches who have won more than Shula’s two Super Bowls (Bill Belichick being one of them), and the Patriots actually have the record for consecutive regular-season wins (18), but it stretches over two seasons.The only thing Mr. Nutri System still has going for him is that undefeated 1972 season ? and the Patriots could very well blast that to smithereens.For someone with his historical significance within the game, to launch such a preemptive strike is really pathetic. You’d think that Shula – who is rightfully considered one of the game’s best coaches – would consider it well beneath his dignity to engage in such sniping. But apparently it isn’t.If he wants to put on the Baltimore Ravens and/or Pittsburgh Steelers pompoms in the privacy of his house, fine. If he wants to root, root, root for the New York Giants in Game 16, go right ahead (though he shouldn’t expect it to do any good; you know Belichick – with his history at the Meadowlands – will put the hammer down for that game).But have a little dignity. It’s just like the former Dolphins players who pop their champagne corks when the last NFL team finally loses. Pathetic.You can’t have much of a life if you’re still hanging onto something you did 35 years ago as if it’s the Holy Grail.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.