The Saints fail to make the playoffs? How can THAT bring you any pleasure? It happens every year! It’s a grand tradition of failure! Why, just last year, they needed to win one game out of three to lock up a playoff slot and dropped all three, including one to the mighty Bengals, IIRC!
It may be my Packer bias, but I think the “Lambeau Leap” is an appropriate celebration.
Brian
So you’re saying they phoned it in?
Hell, I’m a Vikings fan, and I’ve got no problem with it. Although, I did think it was cooler when Moss faked a leap at Lambeau a couple of years ago.
I’m glad you made mention of this. The ESPN crews were tearing him apart for this, and I agree with them.
If the score’s close, it’s one thing to do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight.
However, if your TD brings the score to 31-6 (they hadn’t kicked the EP yet), then that’s a touch extreme.
First and formost, the NFL is entertainment. Judging from the callers on the sports radio station I listen to most of the time, the way fans want to be entertained is by watching a hard-nosed, team sport.
They don’t want to watch showboaters, premeditated acts of poor sportsmanship, or any of the other antics that go on.
It’s the path to NBAdom. The TV numbers and attendence for the NBA are dropping faster than a rock. And the NFL knows it all too well.
Two more points:
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While the coach may have “ripped him a new one” on the sidelines and after the game, he didn’t keep him off the field. I have to wonder if Tony Dungy, Bill Parcells, or some of the other hard line coaches would have kept the guy out for the rest of the game. That, more than a $30,000 fine, would have sent a message.
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Is Neon Deon the only really great player who showboats? Are there others? It seems that most of these antics come from borderline types. (Not borderline in terms of should they be starting, but borderline in terms of pro bowl, hall of fame etc.) I think of the best receiver in the league today - Harrison of the Colts. Like Payton, Rice, Sanders, and the other greats, he lets his play do the talking.
NPR had a commentary on the NFL and specifically the Horn incident. My God, it must be bad when NPR switches from politics or basket weaving in India to this.
I’m gonna divert this thread for a moment. Someone on ESPN compared Joe Horn’s childish stunt to Pete Sampras running into the stands to embrace his parents after winning Wimbledon in 2000. I heard some dope reiterate it on WFAN earlier. If anybody else thinks these two things are comparable, let me point out a few differences, because this really annoyed me.
Joe Horn: scored two touchdowns in a game, and celebrated by pretending to make a cell phone to his kids, obviously a premeditated move. His team will probably not go to the playoffs this year regardless of his good game Sunday.
Pete Sampras: hugged his family after winning a Grand Slam championship. Not only was it a championship, it was the title that gave him the record for most Grand Slam titles ever, by any man. Sampras was about as stoic an athlete as there have ever been. All he did was hug his parents, who had never attended any of his professional matches before.
So: Sampras has a sincere but pretty subdued celebration with his family after winning a major championship and staking a real claim to being the best player ever in his sport. Horn stages a fake one after scoring one touchdown in one regular-season game. I’ve seen other tennis players hug their loved ones after winning major titles. If Joe Horn had called or hugged his family after winning the Super Bowl, I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, he did something really arrogant after scoring a touchdown against a bad team that in the long run will mean nothing.
The real problem was he didn’t actually call his kids, but pretended.
Deon usually has a reson to celebrate. Returning an interception or kick for a touchdown. Actially tackling somebody solo. That’s why he gets a pass.
Deon made a tackle? We must be thinking about different guys.
I think the guy carrying the ball tripped and fell on Deion.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/Bryan+Burwell/222832F4B5D5F6CE86256DA6001259D2?OpenDocument&Headline=Sharpie,+cell,+sign+…+the+true+offense+is+the+money+wasted
Actually Capri your 2nd questions is interesting. Can anyone think of a HoF or nearly HoF player that was a showboater (besides Deion)? The only thing that jumps immediately to mind is that Emmitt Smith is primarily responsible for the “no removing your helmet after a TD” rule. Even then though, I wouldn’t really call him a showboater.
Hmmm…
That particular loss to the Bengals, which I ws notified of in game breaks during the Giants-Eagles 4 tikiways nailbiter, brought a tear to my eye. (Literally…I found it bordering on profound how the cosmos was rallying around getting my jints into the playoffs.)
I was hoping for an embarassing collapse of the Saints again this year, but they delivered far beyond my wildest dreams.
Way better than last year’s collapse, this year’s was a collapse for the ages.
Yet another game I will always remember as “WIDE RIGHT!”
Laughing my ass off…