[OverAndBack]

I agree that a white hat or a crew 'throwing a crew member under the bus' would be a negative, but look at it the other way.

What the hell kind of person are you if you don't stand up and take responsibility for your own actions and mistakes?

I hate that I blew an IW in back to back years in the same game between the same two teams (at least the first year it favored one team, the next year it favored the other*). But I admitted it and that was part of me getting past it. The other part of me getting past it was knowing that (a) almost everybody who's ever done this has kicked a big call or blown an IW or just majorly goofed up and that (b ) it doesn't define you as a person. If it makes you re-examine your mechanics or your ability to do this, that's part of the self-assessments we ALL should make as human beings.

So I have less of a problem with a crew or crew chief trying to protect a crew member in the short term (I don't know what kind of effect that's going to have long term) than I do with the person who blew the IW not saying "It was me."

I guess you could say "Don Denkinger is still reviled 23 years later," and maybe you'd have a point that you'd have to live with that attached to your name for a while.

But is it better or worse to only have it on your conscience?


*I'm kidding. It doesn't even out.