Playing nice*

(*A widely scorned concept here in the America of 2018, seen as "political correctness", aka weakness.)

(*Even though it's not.)

And so to Emmanuel Sanders, wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, who scolded the NASH-unal FOOT-ball League for getting soft after he drew a flag for taunting Sunday. Sanders got the ticket when he burned  Rams cornerback Troy Hill for a 44-yard touchdown catch and then wagged a finger in Hill's face. Out came the flag, and away went the touchdown.

Sanders thought that was ridiculous.

"To me, honestly, I feel like the league is getting soft,'' Sanders said. "I'm having fun. I didn't do anything crazy to the guy besides say, 'I got you on that play,' pointing my finger at him. [The official] threw the flag, which is crazy because I feel like I've been in the league nine years and I've been pointing at guys, go back and look at my film, I've been pointing at guys all the time and saying, 'I got you on that play.'"

The Blob's take on this: That just means you're a repeat offender, Emmanuel.

Look. We're on record here as saying the NFL has become as grim as battlements in the way it corporatizes its product, fining people for silly uniform violations and public displays of (gasp!) emotion. It's as if the league has made it company policy to present as boring and lockstep a product as possible. It's one of the many reasons college football is a far better show these days.

The No Fun League is no longer just a clever wisecrack. It's reality.

That said, waving a finger in an opponent's face is a fraudulent attempt to take back the "fun."

It's nothing of the kind. It's disrespectful to your opponent, and, ultimately, to the game.

And, yes, even as I type those words, I understand what a fuddy-duddy-ish concept they represent. Sportsmanship, to put a name on it, increasingly seems like something almost comically out of time, like stickball and penny candy. It's a quaint relic from the '90s -- the 1890s, not the 1990s.

In 2018, on the other hand, the nation, or at least a deluded wedge of it, takes its cue from Our Only Available President, a bullying manchild celebrated for speaking whatever constitutes his mind. Like OOAP, real men aren't "politically correct." Real men call a spade a spade -- or at least what they claim is one.

They taunt. They gloat. Like Emmanuel Sanders, they point fingers and say "Gotcha!"

For want of a better term, call it the Trump Effect, a juvenile-ization of society that sneers at common decency as weakness, and holds as manly what used to get your mouth washed out with soap. This election cycle is rife with examples; witness the oaf who warned his opponent to don a catcher's mask because he was going to put on his golf spikes and figuratively stomp on his face. And witness also the West Virginia city councilman who, upon Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court appointment, gloated "Better get your coat hangers ready, liberals" -- a crude reference to the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade.

This sort of thing does not just happen on one side of the aisle, of course. Those on the other side of the divide are equally culpable. But OOAP, by the very nature of his position, bears much of the responsibility for the erosion of public discourse to the level of the playground. That he started us down this road is beyond dispute.

Little wonder Emmanuel Sanders considerswaving his finger in a beaten opponent's face "having fun." He's just keeping time with the zeitgeist.

And what an indictment of where we are that is.