NFL’S new hurt-feelings rule could decide a big game
PITTSBURGH — It's completely laughable and likely overblown, but the NFL'S “renewed emphasis on taunting” might also be ruinous. It might decide a big game.
Yes, hurt feelings could determine your next Super Bowl champion, depending on one official's definition of a feeling-hurter compared to another's.
Would flexing constitute taunting? It already has in an exhibition game.
How about a backflip after a touchdown?
How about a quick wave or similar gesture toward an opponent on the way to the end zone? Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported that such gestures from Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill were especially irksome to the NFL'S competition committee. (Most of the rest of us were entertained, I'd wager, but who cares about us?)
What about trash talk, staring down the opposing sideline or spinning the ball on the ground?
Everybody knows what an egregious act of taunting looks like. We know firing the ball into somebody's facemask qualifies. But what kind of benign silliness are we talking about beyond the obvious?
How the players' union signed off on this garbage is beyond me, but let's be clear about what we're saying when we cite the so-called union — and especially when the NFL cites the union — as “approving” of something. It could mean, as in the fairly significant case of the collective bargaining agreement, that nearly half the players (likely more in this case) actually do not approve.
Either way, players must be
kicking themselves after hearing New York Giants owner John Mara defending the promised crackdown Tuesday. Several of them kicked Mara, via social media, after he said, “We [the competition committee] get kind of sick and tired of the taunting that does go on. ... Nobody wants to see a player taunting another player. I know I certainly don't.”
Oh, you'll get over it, John. I'm sure you learned to live with your guy, Victor Cruz, doing salsa dances in people's faces. You can live with a backflip.
Listen, I appreciate sportsmanship as much as the next person, but we're talking about one of the most violent, passionate games on earth here. Players are going to
emote, and you better be careful about how you legislate that.
Let's hope this “crackdown” goes the way of the “crown of the helmet” crusade from three years ago.
In that one, the league vowed to punish all crown-of-helmet hits — even offensive linemen attempting blocks or running backs lowering their heads — with a 15-yard penalty and possible ejection.
Steelers guard David Decastro was among the livid.
“We're going to look like sumo wrestlers,” Decastro said. “Put our bellies against each other.”
Nothing much came of that “renewed emphasis,” although signs were ominous in the preseason
before the league backed off. It looked like a disaster waiting to happen. So does this. Did you see the taunting call on Colts running back Benny Lemay the other day?
Lemay is a fringe player, undrafted, cut by the Browns last season. His desperation played out on an amazing 14-yard run against Carolina. He literally carried a handful of defenders 14 yards. He jumped up, flexed, and appeared to yell something at a defender before walking away.
I'm sure John Mara felt a pang of pride when an official flagged the play for “taunting.”
Is this what we're trying to outlaw here? Unbridled passion?
If the problem is talking smack, officials could throw a flag on every play. The league used another weak example of “taunting” in its annual “rules changes and points of emphasis” video, a real howler if you get a chance to see it.
In one clip, Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack lights up Colts receiver Parris Campbell. The two have a quick word. Campbell flexes. They walk away. The narrator (competition committee chairman Rich Mckay) speaks with all the gravity of Jim Nance at the Masters as the interaction plays out ...
“We saw an increase in actions that clearly are not representative of the respect to opponents and others on the field. Game officials have been instructed to strictly enforce the taunting rules.”
Meanwhile, we all know this is yet another NFL overreaction to a singular event. Two years ago, that event was a blown call in the NFC championship game, which led to the embarrassing and since-abandoned interference-isnow-reviewable edict.
This appears to be, as Yahoo reported, a reaction to what happened in the Super Bowl. Namely, Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. getting in Hill's face and mocking him with the “peace sign” or “deuces” gesture Hill made on his way to the end zone in an earlier game against Tampa Bay.
Hill appears to be the main character here.
“[The backflips], when you're watching that and the gesturing, it's not a part of a touchdown celebration,” one source told Robinson. “It's obviously taunting. It's purposely being disrespectful and you saw in the Super Bowl where it came back. A guy retaliates because he saw that it was being disrespectful and then now he's getting him back.”
Well how dare he. By all means, NFL, put an end to this. Spare the children. Spare the sportsmen.
And by God, spare John Mara.