In the ten-season history of The Amazing Race, no team has been reviled more than Rob and Amber, the conniving couple who appeared on two versions of Survivor before racing all the way to second place in TAR 7. Maybe they’re deserving of the vitriol; after all, they conned teams into taking a time penalty instead of finishing a Roadblock that even Rob couldn’t handle. Even so, racers regularly blast each other for the way they play the game; most recently, single mothers Lyn and Karlyn have taken a “holier than thou” attitude towards beauty queens Dustin and Kandice, especially when the models exercised their Yield option after arriving to the appropriate mat seconds before LynLyn. At home, viewers call that kind of behavior deplorable. For example, my grandmother would be broken up if the models were to win the competition after their “nasty” yielding tactics, and she’ll likely refuse to watch the all-star incarnation of the Race if Rob and Amber take another run at the million. The important thing I keep trying to stress when defending the beauty queens is that the show’s title, though goofily simple, is The Amazing Race, not The Amazing Campaign to Show Your Moral Superiority.

Lyn and Karlyn should not be upset that they were Yielded by the beauty queens; they should be chastising the two lead teams for poor racing strategy. Dustin and Kandice, despite their directional challenges in Sunday’s episode, are one of the two strongest teams left, and the fact that neither Tyler and James or Rob and Kimberly recognized that and tried to throw a wrench in the works is foolish. More to the point, Lyn and Karlyn spent the night before squawking about how eager they were to yield the models, allowing themselves a little bit of breathing room. How is that acceptable, but being the victim of a yield is some kind of personal attack? In reality, it isn’t. Lyn and Karlyn aren’t the focus of a major conspiracy to take down single mothers or people from Alabama or anything; they’re simply not as good at the game as Dustin and Kandice.

Some teams fall ass-backwards into their positions in the final three of the Race while others play by the rules and capitalize on Fast Forwards, easy Detours, and smart Roadblock choices to succeed. But every season, a team like Dustin and Kandice or Rob and Amber (not to throw the models down to Rob and Amber’s level) will plow their way through the game by “playing dirty.” While this kind of behavior shouldn’t be lauded in everyday interaction with people, it should be recognized as brilliant gameplay.

If I were on the show, I’d take any advantage I could to stay at the front of the pack. I’d point other teams in the direction of later flights, convince them I was towards the back of the pack to frazzle them, Yield whoever was behind me…anything short of an actual rules violation, you’d bet I could do it. Lyn and Karlyn interviewed that they hoped the models couldn’t sleep at night after yielding their poor souls. I’m sorry, LynLyn, but I’m sure Phil’s million dollars could buy a comfortable enough bed that I could sleep through most anything.

This season, WinWin wanted to show that the Race could be run a certain way. What happened? They lost. In the meantime, the “dirty players” are hanging on for another week after being saved by non-Philimination. Remember, when it comes to The Amazing Race, the moral high ground is simply a slower path.

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