Nothing infuriates me more than people trying to add further Draconian restrictions upon the NFL—or as Roger Goodell would like to refer to it, the “No Fun League.”
Tons of criticism has gone towards the league commissioner for the hypocrisy of his excessive disciplinarian style reminiscent of a Catholic elementary school principal, which has now reached the point of fining Chicago Bears’ wide receiver Earl Bennett twice for stepping onto the field in bright orange sneakers that were “not league approved” while miraculously ignoring the now legendary fist-fight between Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz and his San Francisco 49ers counterpart Jim Harbaugh.
But this past Sunday night, Bob Costas took Goodell’s ridiculous intentions to a new low, lambasting NFL players for celebrating touchdowns with their elaborate routines, calling these players “buffoons” and seemingly chiding the fans for somehow being responsible for the players who we watch on TV or in the stands, hundreds of feet (or miles) away from us.
Nothing Costas can say can counter the fact that touchdown dances are rewards for players who manage to preserve through the grit and grind of a grueling NFL season and deserve to have some fun on the football field that doesn’t require strenuous effort and years of training—be it spontaneous or blatantly preplanned the night before.
Meanwhile, the focal point of Costas’s ire—the subject of a lot of criticism by the end of this past Sunday—Stevie Johnson, simply does not deserve the flak he has gotten for his touchdown celebration during the Buffalo Bills’ game against the New York Jets, a game which they ended up losing. As part of reaching the end zone, Johnson mocked the self-shooting incident that landed Plaxico Burress in a New York state prison before mocking the signature “Jets” celebration Santonio Holmes does by stretching out both arms and running around by falling to the ground in “midflight.”
Plaxico’s criminal issues might not have been a joke for the receiver, but at the end of the day, they have been tabloid fodder for years. Johnson wouldn’t have performed this dance had people not continued to talk about the case and crack snide remarks about the details of the case. If your favorite late night talk show host can make Plax the butt of his joke, why can’t a fellow competitor?
Meanwhile, some people were quick to point out that the “Jets” component of Johnson’s celebration was offensive to the city of New York due to the events of September 11, 2011. But if the target of Johnson’s dance is so blatantly Santonio Holmes, for Johnson to be referring to that accident, Holmes would have to be an actual airplane and not the real, living human being that he happens to be. Holmes flies his mock plane to celebrate his success; on the road, Johnson tried to quiet the home crowd by grounding the spirit of Holmes’s celebration.
Did Johnson make mistakes? Absolutely. His team lost 15 yards—not because he mocked Burress or Holmes, but rather because he fell to the ground during the course of a celebration—a pretty lame official rule that will likely never change as long as Grandpa Goodell runs the league with his iron fist. Meanwhile, his performance following this touchdown saw a dip as he dropped two very crucial passes that helped contribute to the Jets coming back and defeating the Bills. But at the end of the day, touchdown dances and dropped passes are not related to each other, no matter how much Bob Costas rants about “apology dances.” And perhaps it’s Costas who needs to apologize next week—to us fans who enjoy the artistry of the game, both during and after the catch.