What is the big deal about Joe Horn making a cell phone call in the endzone after scoring a TD? My God, how anal retentive can the NFL be?
Why was the NFL miffed about this?
Let these guys have fun. Football is supposed to be fun. Unless the players are being rude (like sticking the middle finger in the air, or mooning the crowd etc.), let them be silly. Sports is entertainment.
NFL, relax.
ET
The guy hid a cell phone under the goal post and after scoring, made a phone call to his kids in the middle of the game to celebrate how amazing he is. The league penalizing that strikes you as anal retentive?
They’ve had excessive celebration penalties for a long time. Players these days celebrate everything. You’d think nobody had ever caught a five-yard pass before. I think the league has to keep it in check somewhat because it’s just arrogant and stupid.
Scoring a touchdown is entertaining. Trying to get yourself a cell phone is not.
I agree with you. In fact, I think end zone dances should be made part of the game. Decent dances earn 1 point, really inspired stuff earns 2 points. Be done with the whole extra point thing. It’d be more interesting than 90% of the extra point plays.
Anyway, the NFL and announcers have convinced themselves that it’s not just a game, it’s this Serious, Serious Thing That Must Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. Nobody should ever dance or cheer or celebrate. At no point should it appear anyone is having any fun.
I think Chad Johnson’s sign ( “Dear NFL, Please do not fine me again.”) was much better than the phone call.
Chad was fined $10,000 for the sign. 
I have no problems with celebrations when they are done right…TO’s pompoms and sharpie plays both cracked me up. Joe Horn’s phone call was a stupid idea, and his execution was horrible (as much as I hate to badmouth him, his 4 TDperformance singlehandedly got me to the big game in one of my fantasy leagues). He couldn’t even find the phone to begin with, A teammate had to come grab it…then the over-exagerated PUSH PUSH PUSH talk like he was a three year old on the phone was just dumb.
So, in conclusion, Joe Horn: If you’re going to make an ass of yourself, take some notes from TO. He does it best.
Tony Dungy said (paraphrasing) “the line is when it’s not spontaneous.”
I think that’s all that has to be said about this.
I don’t mind a good spike, goal post slam dunk, a little dance, something that demonstrates how excited a guy is.
But when you’re getting into “I’m going to plant something so that if I score, I’ll be so excited, the only way I can show it is through this pre-meditated act,” you’ve just become a guy saying “I’m a showman, and I know I’ll have a stage so I’m going to make a scene.”
Part of Joe Horn’s defense is that he’s real excitable. This shows the complete opposite. He’s so UNEXCITED by his touchdown that he has the presence of mind to root around for his cel phone and put on a little show.
It’s not that it’s not entertaining. Hey, it’s funny. It’s just not an enhancement to the very entertaining game of football itself.
It’s like a cherry on top. . .of a cheese burger.
If you need someting like this to enjoy watching a football game more, then I suspect you’re not really a football fan.
What Trunk (and Tony Dungy) said. Spontaneous celebration is one thing; a calculated demonstration just makes the guy (and the team) look stupid.
The worst thing about it is that Horn took his team right out of the celebration. With the phone stuck to his helmet it was all about “ME”, and to hell with the ten other guys on the field (and the 11 other guys who made it possible for him to be on the field, and the x other guys supporting, etc. etc.)
It’s still a Team sport; leave your self-aggrandizing posturing at home when you come to play.
The only thing that bugs me about this is that TO didn’t think of it first.
Come on, TO! You’re slippin…
I agree with Trunk and Dungy. But I must say that TO’s Sharpie still makes me laugh.
The problem is, the one-upsmanship. TO does it well, then Joe Horn is doing it, next EVERYONE is doing it. It becomes farce, not football!
Great quote,I agree, but to each his own, I say. I could see how this would enhance the game. These kids today with their MTV and their HI-Fi stereos! It seems weird and scary to a guy like me!
If you watched the game, & took the Giant’s defense into account, it was easy not to get too exctied. It’s kind of like basketball players going nuts over a free throw. It’s good to score, but It doesn’t take that much effort.
Maybe I’m just bitter over a Sunday night game that featured a NY Football team that flat-out quit on it’s coach.
As for the antics, I aggree with Mouthbreather. I can’t see being offended by the celebrations, unless you are the other team. The execution was lacking. Although I cheered when TO got clocked on the Dallas Star. If celebrations aren’t your cup o’ tea (Barry Sanders just handed it to the ref…) I understand & respect that…but should they be legislated out of the game?
As for Horn being selfish, didn’t he give the ball to Brooks on another score? Didn’t he also include his o-linemen in another post TD celebration? There were so many scores, I forget the exact details on each end zone party. Some players are ‘me-first’, and show it with the dancing & stuff, but I don’t see why his cell-phone-a-bration is more ‘me first’ then any other celebration/dance/fist-pump/mug-for-the-camera/admiring home-run/slam dunk ect…
I think if the NFL wants to fine him, fine him. I just think everybody should drop the outrage. ESPN’s Sean Salisbury was “offended” and Joe Theisman said Horn “Disrespected” everybody who ever played the game. Sheesh! I thought he was just being a jerk. There is a litany of players who have disrespected the game (steriods come to mind) save the outrage for them.
For the record, Bruce Smith actually placed a cell-phone call from the sidelines after breaking the all-time sack record last week (also against those sad Giants–maybe it’s their fault!). Seems pretty selfish to me, but no one took him to task for it.
rimshot: but the Rams used to do multiple-player celebrations too, and they came down on that as well.
My only problem with celebrations is when routine or meaningless plays are celebrated. You knocked down a pass on 2nd down in the first quarter? Good, you’re supposed to. You scored a garbage-time TD to cut the lead from 35 to 28? So what?
If you bring the score to within 7, you aren’t really in garbage time…
Last Week TJ Duckett scored Atlanta’s first TD of the day, making the score 31-7 or something like that. He celebrated then.
Total effin idiot.
But, if you’re up, and you’re having fun and you’re doing well, I says go for it.
Isn’t that the point? Why does “the other team” here get such a passing mention, as if it doesn’t matter if they have to stand around and be humiliated by some jerk? I don’t think the league imposes fines on this kind of thing because fans are offended, but because it’s “bad sportsmanship,” adds insult to injury, etc. Probably most of all because of the example it sets for kids, that basically it’s ok to make fun of someone, showboat, and belittle the efforts of others if you’re “better” than they are.
I agree with you that I dont’ see the huge controversy, insult to the history of the entire game, and all this other crap that everyone wants to bring up. It was just another stupid stunt. But if players can “plant” items of their choosing in areas of the playing field, where could that lead? Seems just plain dangerous, to me.
A “Last Boy Scout” moment? 
A few more thoughts…
One place it could lead is a melee. Because one of these teams is going to see a guy doing it, and drop a hammer on him. Tom Jackson (on ESPN) said something to the effect “if the giants weren’t upset with it, then that upsets me”.
I go back to my silly quote, “it’s like a cherry on top of a chesseburger.” The NFL is the most popular sport by a mile in America. I find it the absolute best TV sport – loaded with drama, tension, athleticism, strategy, size, speed, violence. It’s great. I like everything about it. I love betting on it.
For guys like Horn to think they’re IMPROVING on it because they’re tacking a silly celebration onto their scores is ridiculous.
I’m not even going to call him out for being egocentric or thuggish or immature. It’s just not that entertaining, and what entertainment value it has, does not increase the pleasure of watching the game. As far as a celebration goes, yes, it was a good one, but the celebration itself was unnecessary.
It’s like listening to a good song, and then someone comes in and plays “shave and a haircut” with a kazoo on the end of it because they like it.
OK, now I’m just repeating myself.
You will notice that receivers are much more prone to this than anyone else. They often seem to have a mentality that THEY create the touchdowns. Never mind about the accurate pass and the blocking which allowed you the time to get open. Randy Moss, for example, flexes his arm muscles; yo, Randy, except for pushing off, those muscles have little to do with your success.
Football is supposed to be fun for the fans. I don’t give a damn if the pro players are having fun. There is also supposed to be some sportsmanship: (1) It really is a game, so you don’t need to get too full of yourself when you win, (2) The fans of the other team don’t deserve to have their noses rubbed in your…excrement.
I have to say, though, that Horn’s god-awful dance after his first TD was pretty bad, too.
Put Joe Horn and Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens and all those guys who have orgasms every time they make a tackle on the same field with Mike Ditka and Ray Nitchke and Deacon Jones. Then see how often someone does something like sign or ball or make a phone call during a game.
Celebration is fine. But it should be worth celebrating.
The trouble is that if someone decks Joe Horn on the next play, they’ll get a 15 yard penalty and a $25,000 fine for unnecessary roughness.
Play football.
$30,000 fine. Ho hum. If the NFL disciplinarians had half the creativity of TO, Horn, Smith, (not Sapp, he looked like he stepped on a hot nail) and others, Joe Horn would be paying the December bill of every cell phone user in attendance that game, players, coaches, officials, staff, stadium personnel, and fans.
Cell phones do not belong on the field or sidelines, plain and simple.
The Saint’s Coach Jim Hasslet ripped into Horn during the post game press conference. Jim was seriously pissed that he “put himself before the the team”. I doubt Horn will be doing anything similar in the near future.
Oh my poor poor Giants. Go Dallas! Go Panthers! If everything goes to plan, we could get the #1 overall pick…which I’ve been reduced to rooting for since November 24th. Ugh.
I hated TO’s sharpie incident. I didn’t mind so much the pom poms…that actually seemed pretty cool. But after watching Joe Horn, I have way more respect for TO’s sharpie thing. It wasn’t about the sharpie; he just wanted to sign a ball, so he had to use something to write.
Joe horn did not make a phone call. He pretended to use it like a child with a toy phone. Pathetic.
Joe Horn is the only player in the league I am rooting to see injured. And I will love watching the Saints fail to make the playoffs.
The game was reasonably close at the time. What are the Giants supposed to do? Retaliate and get a personal foul? That exact situation contributed to the meltdown in San Francisco last year in the playoffs. Kudos to the G-Men for not responding.