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.”
