After watching Joe Horn call his kids on a cell phone from the field after his 2nd of 4 touchdowns, I waited to hear the hew and cry from all the sportsmedia about how ‘bad’ something like this is…
My question is this: do antics like this really have any negative impact on the game? I for one enjoyed watching Terell Owens pull out the Sharpie and Joe Horn on the cell. However, most of the polls I’ve seen say that a majority of people think that players shouldn’t be able to do these sorts of things. Why not?
Because it’s just a fucking touchdown. No matter how pretty that touchdown was, it’s not the end of the game. The time for celebration is when the final score is posted, not before then.
Or you know, that could just be me. It just really annoys me when players act like they just won the fucking Superbowl when they do their job. Celebrate in the locker room after you know for a fact that you did your job better than the other guy. Show alittle class when you’re on the field.
To further the question, how much celebration is too much? Favre runs around the field with his index finger in the air after every touchdown pass, Kitna falls to his knees, and Culpepper does the ‘false start’ signal after every touchdown…and these guys throw anywhere from 15-30 TDs a season. I’m pretty sure Horn doesn’t put up those numbers, so why not allow him a little more celeb time in the end zone?
I guess my point is that a TD in football is something special. Soccer(football) players zoom around the field like aeroplanes after scoring a goal, ripping their shirts off and that’s acceptable. So where exactly is the line between too much and too little?
I like the celebrations. Hiding the cell phone under the goal post pad was funny. I think players should be allowed to do whatever they want until it slows down the game or hurts somebody.
FWIW my favorite celebration of them all is the guys that jump into the stands. I think that rocks.
I think it’s funny that this has generated as much attention as it has, especially all the “unprofessional!” shouting. Meanwhile, Millen (a coach, who should be professional) calls a player a faggot, and very few people care.
I prefer to see the guys actually win the game, I’m not interested in seeing them shake pom-poms, write on the ball, call home or whatever. I don’t remember which great coach said it, but, when you get into the end-zone, act like you’ve been there before. After all, its your job to get there.
By calling home and signing balls, etc, you are acting as if you, and you alone scored this touch down. Guess what? Without the other 10 guys you’d be toast. Show some class and give the rest of the team the credit they deserve.
In general, a little dance wasn’t so bad, but now these showboats are trying to top each other in their outrageousness and for me it gets old quickly.
I have read that some or all teams teach players how to injure opponents on the field. To the extent that this is true, it makes all concerns about “sportsmanship” in the NFL seem moot.
One of the reasons the officials try to keep a lid on this stuff is fear of retaliation from the opposing team. Those guys are pretty gacked on adrenaline (and maybe other things like caffeine and ephedrine), a cycle of cheap shots is something everyone wants to avoid.
It’s simple really. Football is a team sport, none of these celebrating players would do anything without ten other guys on the field doing their own jobs. Celebrating with your team - chest bumps, high fives, whatever is fine. Celebrating by yourself, as if it is an individual accomplishment, is bunk, especially when (like calling on a cell phone or signing the ball with a sharpie) the celebration is deliberately designed to call attention to yourself.
Well, as long as it doesn’t slow things down too much, I don’t see a problem.
Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy of Joy of Sumo here at the office, but the author devotes a very interesting chapter to the subject of victory celebrations, and touches on most of the points brought up here. Celebrating every moment cheapens the moments of true celebration. The guy doing his victory dance is taking credit for what the entire team made happen. The “in your face” taunts spark off vendettas and intentional injuries. Most of all, though, an adult celebrates by high-fiving teammates, waving to the crowd, or pumping a fist in the air; doing cartwheels, dancing around the endzone and waving your butt at the opposing team are the acts of little children. Ill-mannered little children.
Also, wrt to the cell phone and the sharpie, having the items ready and on the field (or in the uniform) before the game makes it look to me like they’re more interested in preparing their private celebrations than in preparing to help their team win the game.
I’m really more impressed with the fact that Owens played a game with a marker stuck in his sock.
For good or ill, I think they get their point across. A lot of people will remember the touchdowns with the celebrations, whether they approve or not. I personally don’t really see the cell phone or the sharpie as being taunting. When Owens went and stood in the Star at Dallas, that was taunting(even though I think Dallas deserves whatever badness befalls them).
Very well said; the RB or WR who celebrates after scoring a touchdown is like the actor who thinks his performance won the Best Picture Oscar, and never mind all those editors and cinematographers and directors and grips and gaffers whose faces don’t go on-screen.
Personally, my favorite TD routine ever was Art Monk’s; remember Art Monk, of the Redskins? His routine was thus:
(1) Score a touchdown;
(2) Hand the ball to a ref; and
(3) Go back to the sidelines until he’s needed again.
Even when I was a kid, I thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. As if he were saying, “This is how a MAN, not a boy, scores touchdowns.”
The CFL allows the players to celebrate, and it is never a single player doing the celebration. The team usually gets together in the endzone, and does a little dance, or something to celebrate. It isn’t too bad IMO.
IIRC, the NFL actually fned a guy who went from the CFL to the NFL, Henry Williams (played with the Eagles down South) every time he did his flip after scoring a touchdown. He didn’t go out of his way to do it either. He just did a front flip after crossing the goal line. As a kick return specialist, though, he didn’ get to do too many.
I personally think, though, that if the league is going to say they do not tolerate behaviour like that, they should punish the players who do it. Anyways, placing a cell phone under the padding is technically a penalty for interfering with the field itself. It would be a fine against the team itself, for the creation of a possibly unsafe playing environment. I know, a cell phone can’t do too much damage, but, it would smarten the players up in a damn hurry.
You guys would hate rugby league then. At various times here there have been competitions to come up with outlandish post-try celebrations that range from individual one’s to team events. The Footy Show used to award a prize for trhe best celebration. Some were very funny. The winner a couple of seasons ago was Mark Riddell who raced away to score, put down the ball, vaulted the fence into the crowd and sat watching the replay applauding his own try. Members of the crowd gathered around to shake hands with him.
Sounds like the Lambeau Leap, don’t ask. In Green Bay, after a touchdown the guy will drop the ball and take a running leap into the stands and the fans will catch him and pat him on the head and shake his hand and hold him up.
I don’t have a problem with those types of celebrations or even TO’s pom-pom dance. But if the thing requires placing props before the game, then that’s a bit much, I think.