The issue:
"I'm predicting (the Saints) will go not only undefeated, but all the way through the Super Bowl -- something that's never been done before."
Bobby Jindal on Monday, December 7th, 2009 in a radio interview
Gov. Jindal predicts Saints will be first to go undefeated and win Super Bowl
The quotation of Gov. Jindal is accurate. Nor was it taken out of context.
The fact checkers:
Robert Farley: writer, researcher
Greg Joyce: editor
Analysis:
We may never solve the mystery as to why this statement was of issue to PolitiFact. Second-guessing PolitiFact's judgment, on the other hand ...
We already have a sufficient account of Jindal's statement above, so we merely need to let writer Robert Farley explain himself:
Clearly, Jindal, who has been talked about as a presidential contender, has not seen the annual -- some would say obnoxious -- champagne celebration by some members of the 1972 Dolphins after the last undefeated NFL team falls. Led by coach Don Shula and quarterback Bob Griese, that Dolphins team laid claim to the first and only "perfect season," going 14-0 in the regular season and then going on to win the Super Bowl.Farley's initial statement seems to reveal the PolitiFact judgment at the outset. "Clearly" Jindal has not seen the 1972 Dolphins toasting other teams' initial loss of the season.
But is that really the case?
Farley thinks so, and after a few comments about the Dolphins he executes summary judgment:
But with the Saints still only 12-0 (they'd need to win four more regular season games and three playoff games to finish perfect), we think this smack talk from former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris, uttered when the New England Patriots made a run at a perfect season in 2007, is perhaps more appropriate: "Like I said, don't call me when you're in my town, call me when you're on my block and I see you next door moving your furniture in."Poor fumbling presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal! Is that why this issue is important to PolitiFact?
We're all for hometown boostering, especially from a guy like Gov. Jindal who said he suffered through the Saints' many bad years too, but we're all about the facts here, and he fumbled this one. We rate his statement False.
But let's do some quick math with Farley's numbers.
The Saints have 12 wins as it stands. Farley says with four more they will finish the regular season undefeated. That makes a total of 16. The Saints would have a bye for the first round of the playoffs, but would still have to win three more in the playoffs to take home the Super Bowl title. That would make a total of 19 wins. Farley's story fails to mention it explicitly, but the Dolphins journey to the Super Bowl consisted of a 17-0 record, including an undefeated 14 game regular season.
No NFL team has gone undefeated through the regular season and the playoffs since the regular season expanded to 16 games. Jindal certainly failed to make that clear in his statement. However, since the difference in the season totals is spectacularly obvious to pro football fans, shouldn't one consider that Jindal was implicitly talking about that unprecedented feat?
Consider the reaction of a fan to the PolitiFact story, posted at the MSN/FOX Sports site:
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What a dou**e. What jyndal meant was that a perfect 19-0 season has yet to be reached. No offens to Dolphins fans but that team had less games to play....
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I expect that reaction would typify the opinion of serious NFL fans, name-calling aside.
Farley's story gives the most reasonable explanation no apparent consideration. That alone is sufficient to flunk the responsible staffers, even ignoring the grade they offered Jindal.
The grades:
Robert Farley: F
Greg Joyce: F
Update:
Snopes.com calls "the annual ... champagne celebration by some members of the 1972 Dolphins after the last undefeated NFL team falls" false.
Consider the "F" grades given to Farley and Joyce solidified.
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