Chad Ochochinco attempts to bribe an official for a favourable replay call with a one US dollar bill.
This is such an embarrassment for the NFL and America. Lets face it, this was no bribe. This was a insult towards an NFL official, highlighting the disparity in their incomes. Such behavior needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. I fully support the $20,000 USD fine.
You’d never see A CFL player offer an official a dollar bill in Canadian football.
Yeah, it has to be a dollar coin…
Your own link puts the word bribe in quotation marks. No one really believed that Chad O. was really trying to buy a call–it was a joke, for pity’s sake. While it may have been a stupid joke, I think the fine was a big overreaction. A verbal warning to cut the crap would have been sufficient, IMO.
For what it’s worth (or not), I laughed when I saw it. I knew he wasn’t serious, and I figured he probably realized the call would be overturned and was humorously trying to avoid that.
The very fact that it was only a dollar (an amount to be obviously scoffed at) highlights to ME the fact that it was not a genuine bribe attempt–not to mention the fact that it was done openly on national TV. No secrecy or trying to be discreet–of course it was a joke.
Canadian football officials work for poutine.
Joking aside, there probably is a serious issue from the league’s point of view in that they want to refute any links with bribery or gambling even if it’s only a joke. Chad’s a funny guy by the way, his coach stopped him from mailing the Steelers DBs some mustard this week. The joke was going to have something to do with them not being able to ketchup with him. They all had a good laugh anyway.
Child please. It was a joke. If Chad wanted to “highlight the disparity of their incomes” it wouldn’t have been a paltry dollar bill, it’d be a roll of hundreds. I know Chad is a showboating self-aggrendizer, but you’re just making stuff up. It was a joke pure and simple.
It was a clear and obvious joke, and it wasn’t intended to be at the expense of the official, just mildly self-deprecating since he knew the call was not likely to go his way. I honestly can’t believe anyone watching would have thought he was serious, nor would they have thought he was trying to big time the ref.
Chill please. It was a joke. Ike got it right off the bat (or is it the kickoff).
Yes, the whole thing is purely ridiculous, and my OP intended to reflect that. The subject is more worthy of the pit, but I was worried about being sanctioned for presenting a joke thread.
“No, ma’am. We at the NFL do not have a sense of humor we’re aware of.”
Given the exchange rate, then it might have been a bribe.
Pretty much. It’s referred to as the “No Fun League” for good reason.
For fuck’s sake, it was a joke.
Now if you really want to get serious, read this (from the horse’s mouth, as it were): http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2009/11/shannon-sharpe-nfl-should-fine-chad-ochocinco-for-1-bribe/1
I believe that the fine wouldn’t have been so much if it hadn’t been the guy who has been tweaking the NFL’s nose since the day he got there.
Meh. He seems to enjoy the attention. I don’t like his antics much, but what am I going to do? I’m not going to root against the guy.
In a way, I think its kind of cool to keep pushing the envelope, because the NFL can take itself waaaaay too seriously sometimes. They are a bit overprotective of everything associated with themselves.
We need to come up with an SDMB meme for threads with a high Whoosh rate.