We used to do it at parties, when the hour got late and silly. Someone would produce a roll of TP -- a makeshift football that was perhaps more symbolic than we cared to admit -- and we'd conduct our very own Elbert "Ickey" Woods dance contest, which of course consisted of just one step.
The Ickey Shuffle: Everyone knew how to do it, right?
That's because it was 1988 and the Bengals were on their way to the Super Bowl, and the Ickey Shuffle was all the rage. Ickey Woods was a rumbling dump truck of a running back for the Bengals that season, a joyous man with a nose for the end zone and a whimsical soul. So he'd score and then do this little soft-shoe that ended with an emphatic spike of the football.
It was great. It was fun. Everyone loved it.
Except, of course, for the NFL. To its eternal shame.
They don't call it the No Fun League for nothing, and so here came the joyless boardroom suits after Ickey. They deemed the Shuffle taunting, which it most assuredly was not, and penalized the Bengals every time Ickey did it. So he began doing it on the sidelines, safely away from the field of play.
That was 33 years ago. And the Bengals, finally, are back in the Super Bowl.
So let's start the official Ramping Up Of The Hype Week with an homage to the Ickey Shuffle.
He's still around, Ickey is, and last Sunday he was in Kansas City to present the AFC Championship trophy to this generation of Bengals. Hopefully this will mean a revival of the Ickey Shuffle all over the greater Cincinnati area this week, and maybe all of America. Because you know what would be great about that?
The NFL that hated it so back in the day might fully embrace it this time. I'm sure they're desperate for anything right now that would divert attention from Brian Flores's lawsuit and its exposing of the league's sham diversity initiatives.
Plus, the irony would be all kinds of juicy. I mean, the despised Ickey Shuffle to the rescue?
Beautiful.
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