In their heyday, the Los Angeles - now Oakland - Raiders had the notoriety as the dirtiest football team in the league. They were smashmouth, cheap shot artists with the toughest players in the league and the toughest fans to match.
They answered to one motto that owner Al Davis gave them: "Just win, baby."
In East Lansing, 2,300 miles from the Coliseum, the MSU men's hoops team could take a page from Davis and the Raiders. Chuck the murderer's row schedule, the injuries and the excuses, boys, and heed Al Davis' words.
Just win, baby. Just one against a tough opponent. Please, just one.
To anyone who bore witness to Saturday's 77-64 loss to No. 21 Wisconsin, a laundry list of on-court problems springs to mind - a lack of interior toughness, a point guard vacancy, former freshman guard Brandon Cotton listening to the wrong people and thinking about transferring; the list goes on.
So what that Erazem Lorbek bolted to Europe. So what that analysts point out how good the Spartans would be if so-and-so had stayed to graduate. Complain with one hand, use the other to practice off-hand lay-ups and transition defense.
A pretty good chunk of MSU athletics fans are regrettably fickle, so expect the call-outs and cat-calls to continue. A short memory and a quick fuse sometimes seem like complimentary handouts when we pick up season tickets.
But instead of lighting the torches and storming Izzo's castle because the Spartans lost to six ranked opponents in six tries this season, take a deep breath and look to the past for a moment.
Have we already forgotten that before MSU made that little run into the NCAA Tournament a year ago, the team was in an eerily similar situation? The Spartans were 10-8, Izzo was forced to place blame on Paul Davis and it seemed like the MSU program built on toughness, intensity and tenacity was on the brink of despair.
Then Adam Ballinger made a couple of important 3-pointers against Indiana and MSU lost five games for the rest of the season, one of them in the NCAA Regional Final against Texas.
Oh, how we rioted our appreciation! Tip a car, these Spartans are on fire just like that trash bin!
The Raiders didn't care how they won, where they won or who they beat. Just win, baby, and the wins will take care of the rest. So what that the nation - and maybe the men's hoops team itself - was duped into believing this is the second-best team in the nation. It's January, it's time for Big Ten basketball, broken noses and fat lips.
Style points are out the windows, boys, and it's time to play on broken ankles and fire in the belly. So-and-so left early? So what. Another stress fracture? Not good anymore. We remember Mateen Cleaves beating Final Four teams on one foot.
The excuse well is dry now for everyone: the team, the fans and the college basketball experts. The only thing we know about this basketball team is that everything we thought we knew about them, we don't. No reason to give up just yet, Spartan fans.
Just win, baby. Who cares about anything else?
