The keep-your-shirt-tucked-in Force has always been strong in the NASH-unal FOOT-ball League (as Howard Cosell used to pronounce it). So I guess we should have figured this was coming.
"This" being the NFL's recent pronouncement that, henceforth and forevermore, the league would be cracking down on taunting, and NO EXCEPTIONS. The minions will obey the laws of sportsmanship (and good grooming, too!), or else.
I suppose we should applaud this nod to propriety and straightenin'-up-and-flyin'-right. After all, football is no place for cheap shots, even if it frequently is.
That's not the issue. The issue is it's the NFL. and we've seen the way it already enforces its taunting rule. And so there are questions.
Such as, what will the league consider taunting under its enhanced enforcement?
Because a lot of what it already considers taunting frequently isn't taunting, at least the way the Blob understands it. And that's a problem.
I mean, will it be taunting when two linemen start jawing at each other after a particularly contentious play, of which there are a bunch every game?
Will it be taunting when a quarterback gets hit late on an out of bounds play, leaps up and gets in the perpetrator's face to show he won't be intimidated?
Will it be taunting when a pass rusher sacks the QB and whispers "All night, old man, all night long ..."?
'Cause that exact thing actually happened one time.
It was Bubba Smith who said it to Bart Starr, and the year was 1967. Re-read Jerry Kramer's "Instant Replay" and you'll find it.
Point is, a little trash-talking -- taunting? -- has been part of the football culture forever. The game's a demolition derby, large men smashing into one another at light speed, and hefty reserves of testosterone are required to play it. And testosterone makes you do and say things. Testosterone has quite a mouth on it.
It can also choreograph. See: Elmo Wright and Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, the NFL's seminal end-zone dancers, high-steppin' in the end zone.
See also: Deion Sanders strutting across the goal line with his hand on the back of his head. Or Chuck Bednarik exulting over Frank Gifford's stretched-out body after knocking the consciousness out of him, one of the NFL's alltime iconic images.
How much of that will now be a flag and 15 yards? Or a flag, 15 yards and a fine?
Look. No one's saying here that taunting an opponent is a good thing, or should be emulated by kids on youth football fields. But there's a fine line between behavior that's beyond the pale and behavior that just flows from the emotion and intensity of the game. And the NFL hasn't always been particularly discerning about the difference.
Which is why this crackdown might wind up being cracked.
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