Granted, I don’t go to many NFL games and probably wouldn’t take my kid, but I wouldn’t have wanted to see that. Must have been a tough work day as a millionaire on either one of these mediocre teams, but sometimes having gainful employment is difficult, and personality conflicts are part of the job.
In Soccer, not considered a “real” sport by American Football’s geniuses, team mates Lee Bowyer (left) and Kieron Dyer brawl. Dyer got a 3-gan suspension, while Bowyer (who started it) was fined $200,000 and banned 4 games.
These days we’re hearing a lot of complaints from players and pro football pundits that the NFL has allegedly gone soft. Their argument is that the NFL has cheapened the game by not letting players hit each other harder and with more force, knocking off helmets and roughing players more and more. Moreover, such voices argue that the NFL is “protecting” quarterbacks to keep up scoring and boost ratings.
Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but I remember the grand old days when stripping the ball and grabbing the face mask were both illegal; and even way, way back, when players had to actually fully enter the end zone to score a touch down, before badgering the ref to just give them the points so they could dance in the end zone. Now face masking is accepted practice and players barely need to have a foot in to be awarded points; while defensive players (in lieu of tackling their opponents) hit the ball fist-first like Gabrielle Reece during a bikini-clad beach Volleyball tourney.
When did the quality, the integrity, and the National Football League’s control of the game go down the toilet? When overpaid players started calling all the shots, that’s when.
The NY Knicks lost four players to suspension in the 1997 NBA Playoffs. Not for brawling, but for coming off the bench. They lost that series after a 3-1 lead over the Miami Heat.
Sure, cage match fighting as a sport is a popular rage now. And there’s a lot of money in the enterprise of watching two guys kick the crap out of each other in fighting matches staged by UFC and TapouT. Hell, even women’s roller derby touts the brawl as a part of the draw for fans. I suppose the difference is that these sports, while supported by a loyal following, are not televised across the world to potentially billions of viewers, played live on Sundays in front of tens of thousands while being underwritten by billions of advertizing dollars.
Maybe I’m reaching here, but I guess I expect the NFL and its players to be professionals at a higher level.
On the contrary, for all the barking from Football’s insiders about “just letting them play”, it is clear that pro players like Finnegan and Johnson can not handle the rougher play of today’s NFL. Otherwise they wouldn’t have had to take it to fist fighting and acting like unruly drunks at a bar yesterday.
Eric Cantona kicks a verbally abusive fan. Later, Cantona, Manchester United's top scorer is suspended eight months, after initially being sentenced to prison.
Their “punishment”, a $25,000 fine for each of the players, is no sort of recourse to an NFL player, considering that the average NFL salary is supposedly $770,000 if you don’t count endorsements. $25,000 is merely a drop in the bucket, and a night out on the town. Or in the context of the spoiled, obnoxious man-children who occupy the pro sports rosters, $25,000 probably constitutes a night with a top notch call girl. What makes anyone think that fights like these won’t crop up again and again, if it means the player gets their name in the headlines and a slap on the wrist as a disincentive for acting like a hooligan?
For all of the money pro athletes make, it’s not too much to ask for them to act like professionals while on the field, especially while in the presence of the fans who pay their salaries through the NFL’s exorbitant ticket prices. That’s right, “professionals”, not petulant goofballs with pads and a helmet, but professionals.
With the League leveling no meaningful punishment here, I wonder at what point will the NFL actually step in and suspend players when they act like drunks at a bar. Will it be at the punching of referees? Guns and knives on the field?
Or maybe with a little help of their lawyers and media consultants --better yet some sound advice from fans-- the NFL will lift its skirt and find its manhood again soon.
Andy Frye writes about sports and life here and tweets throughout the day on Twitter at @MySportsComplex. He plays soccer without a cup, but will lend one to the NFL should they suddenly grow a pair.
Written words © 2010. Soccer pics courtesy of the London Telegraph. Knicks-Heat pic courtesy of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
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