Origins Of On-Field “Jackassery”?

In a column last week in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, Bob Molinaro had this item:

“Curmudgeonly rant: With penalties for taunting up 220 percent compared to the first four weeks of last season, the NFL is taking steps to clarify the rules of deportment for the benefit of the obstreperous players. So this is how far we’ve sunk. There was a time when the primary rule governing on-field conduct was an obvious and unwritten one: don’t act like a jackass. Those days are long gone.”

I agree completely that the meaning of and the limits imposed by that simple unwritten rule are long gone – and perhaps even long forgotten. So I sent this e-mail message to Professor Molinaro:

“When did NFL on-field ‘jackassery’ begin?

“Billy ‘White Shoes’ Johnson dancing in the end-zone?

“Harold Carmichael spiking the ball in the end-zone after a D catch?

“Mark Gastineau doing his sack dance’?

“I totally agree that it is getting out of hand but trying to define what is ‘excessive’ celebration and what is ‘taunting’ as opposed to ‘talking smack’ is a fool’s errand. Maybe that is a good thing because who better to set out on a fool’s errand than Roger Goodell and Dean Blandino and the rest of the suits in the NFL Front Office?”

I think the question as to the origins of excessive celebration is sufficiently interesting to pose it to the general audience here. My personal opinion is that Billy Johnson doing his end zone dance after returning a punt or a kickoff for a TD was the impetus for today’s ubiquitous end-zone celebrations. I think it was Mark Gastineau’s “sack dance” that set things on the course for “excessive celebration” because in many cases the sack that set the celebration in motion was not immediately impactful on the game. For example, he would celebrate a sack in the 4th quarter when the Jets were behind by 2 scores. Big deal…

I know others here will have cogent opinions/observations on this matter – – so have at it.

Having led off today with the issue of on-field jackassery, let me point to a recent NFL example of off-field jackassery. During the BYE Week prior to yesterday’s game in Detroit, the Eagles’ linebacker, Nigel Bradham, was arrested in Miami for carrying a loaded gun in his backpack in Miami airport. Earlier this year, Bradham was also arrested in South Florida for allegedly punching a hotel employee; his trial for assault and battery in that case is scheduled for January 2017.The Eagles’ defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz, had coached Bradham in other stops in the NFL and had recommended that the Eagles bring Bradham to the team. However, Schwartz did get right down to the heart of this matter with this comment:

“You do enough dumb-ass things, pretty soon, you’re going to be labeled a dumb ass.”

I think coach Schwartz’ comment there has myriad application and it explains many of my sentiments with regard to people and institutions. For example, that explains pretty much the way I feel about the folks at the NCAA who write the silly eligibility rules and then enforce them stupidly. That pretty much explains how and why I think so poorly of the 535 members of the US Congress. I think this may be an important “principle” that will need invocation in the future and so I will declare that statement to be:

The Schwartz Conjecture.

Profootballtalk.com reported last week that Johnny Manziel has now served his 4-game suspension and can therefore be signed by any NFL team and put on the field next Sunday should that team choose to do something that dumb. Somehow, the fact that Manziel was not under contract to any team in the league had nothing to do with starting the clock on his 4-game suspension. In fact, his “suspension” coincided with a stretch of 4 NFL games where no team wanted him to play in the first place. Not a lot of “deterrent value” in that there punishment, I would say…

Roger Goodell could suspend me for 4 games just the way Manziel was suspended for 4 games and the effect on me and the NFL would be exactly the same. Neither of us would care; none of you would care.

The Atlanta Falcons will have to give up 3 days of Organized Team Activities (OTAs) in 2017 because the team violated the work rules spelled out in the current CBA between the NFL and the NFLPA. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the Falcons let players “engage in excessive levels of on-field physical contact” back in May 2016. This provision of the rules was put there with the idea of promoting player safety in practice settings. You can read the rest of the account of this matter here.

Finally, since I began today talking about on-field jackassery and excessive celebrations, let me close with this comment from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald on that subject:

“The NFL is cracking down on touchdown celebrations. I think it was the guy who did the 11-minute naked Lambada atop the goal post crossbar that pushed the commissioner over the edge.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………