There’s a lot of talk about “spiking the football” going on lately. It occurs to me that a lot of people are not American Football fans and probably don’t really understand the metaphor. Obviously, I think most people understand that football players tend to celebrate when they score a touchdown. And, quite often, the celebration involves throwing the oddly-shaped football down at the turf so that it skitters away in a series of unpredictable bounces and skips. There has been a weird amount of controversy in football about the appropriateness of celebration. There is even a penalty for “excessive celebration,” and the definition of “excessive” seems to change each year. Spiking the ball has always been deemed acceptable, but there have been limits placed on dancing, and bans on removing the helmet and the use of props.
I remember watching a program once where a professor of African-American studies explained his theory on why American blacks find it so necessary to express themselves through celebration, and why the NFL (No-Fun League) was out of line for suppressing their joy. Believe it or not, I think people have even done their college thesis on the issue.
But there was one player who never spiked the football after he scored. He never danced. He never really celebrated much at all. He just handed the ball to the referee, gave a few pats of approval to his blockers, and modestly returned to the sideline. His name is Barry Sanders, and he was one of the best running backs in the history of the league (he scored 109 touchdowns). Barry Sanders thought that a player should act like he had been the end zone before. He should act like he expected to score. And a player shouldn’t show up the opposition. He was such a class act that he decided to retire at the age of 30, when he was still in good health, rather than break Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record. He had that much respect for Payton.
I bring this up because this is the full context of the debate over how much to celebrate the demise of Usama bin-Laden. Should the president take credit for it? Would releasing photos of bin-Laden’s exposed brain be excessive? What’s the line between being happy and being overly political?
Here’s the thing, though. Barry Sanders didn’t have to get reelected. He had to get elected to the Hall of Fame. And if he had had to lobby for the privilege, he would have gladly pointed out that he scored 109 touchdowns and was (at that time) second all-time in yardage gained from scrimmage. There is nothing wrong with pointing to your accomplishments in an effort to get what you rightly deserve.
People who don’t like excessive celebration in football never suggested that no one can point to their statistics to make the case that they were a good player.
So, yeah, it’s possible to campaign on the fact that he got bin-Laden without being guilty of “spiking the football.” And that leaves aside the debate over the No-Fun League’s suppression of joy.
I leave it aside because scoring a touchdown is really not the same as taking a human life…at all…which is why this analogy is pretty lame to begin with.
Here’s a famous NFL celebration designed to avoid the penalty for ‘excessive’ celebration.
Don’t forget that Sanders was pissed that Wayne Fontes and Bobby Ross used heftier backs for goal-line situations. Why was he pissed? Because he considered himself a full-time back and thought he could get into the end zone just as good as the bulldozer types some coaches like to employ. And why else did that matter to Sanders? Because his dad thought that Jim Brown was the greatest football player that ever played and there was no way you were getting Brown off the field. As a result, Sanders felt slighted because he wanted to live up to the standard of Brown.
Sanders was fun to watch. Like Payton he played for a lousy team most of his career and poor coaches. They had but one good year. But they were always worth watching because Sanders was so incredible.
I contrast him to his contemporary Emmitt Smith, who broke every record in the book behind the greatest Offensive Line ever assembled and flanked by a hall-of-fame quarterback and wide receiver, and a fullback and tight end who were frequent all-pros. Emmitt had every advantage, Sanders did not. But it was Emmitt who has a rule named after him — the “Emmitt Smith” rule prohibits taking one’s helmet off on the field, since Emmitt did that after every big play in order to show his face to TV and talk trash to his opponents.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick” is just so out of vogue now.
Funny how we all criticized Guliani and his ilk for the way they coopted 911 for their own political means, but it’s cool if Obama drags around Bin Laden’s corpse like a prop, and that’s what Bin Laden is, at campaign fundraisers and the incessant commercials we know are coming. Nah man, it isn’t alright to spike Bin Laden’s exposed brain.
How about Obama explains to us how he’s going to put us back to work and keep us in our houses? How about he explain why it is that Banks like BOA and corporations like Whirlpool aren’t paying any federal tax while families are living in tents under bridges or squatting in their own homes?
Why not let us know how and when he intends to restore our personal privacy and freedoms? I want to know what right he has to murder American citizens without charge or trial. Or how he intends to prosecute 3 wars simultaneously while Americans can no longer afford to commute to work and then spend a third of their salary to feed their families.
Spike the ball? The dude hasn’t scored yet!
Barry Sanders was and is a beauty. Class all the way. But in my book Mark Bavaro is the epitome of a first class football player. That dude was a stone cold badass on the field. All business and power. No gloating or dancing.
Bavaro is also a stark-raving mad Christian fundamentalist lunatic.
But, hey, I never knew how Don Mattingly felt about Jesus Christ until the day they retired his number. Some things don’t matter.
Bavaro, Mattingly, they played the game the way it is supposed to be played.
But, as to your other points, I have two observations.
1) if you have ten flaws in your life, you still have the right to point out your strengths.
and
2) my post is an effort to differentiate between classless egotistic unearned assholery and actually doing something and expecting people to acknowledge and reward your achievements.
I gave Rudy a lot of leeway after 9/11 because he performed like a champion on a day where the administration embarrassed itself. But he took it too far and milked it too much. He was the Deion Sanders of 9/11. He didn’t have to be Barry Sanders, but he needed to have some sense of humility.
Bavaro is also a stark-raving mad Christian fundamentalist lunatic.
How do you know this? I know he played college football at Knute Rockne U. And that he was the ultimate bad ass against the 49ers that one Monday Night.
Check Wikipedia…or google “Mark Bavaro” and “Operation Rescue”.
I will. I wasn’t questioning Booman, just wondering how he knew is all. Thanks for the info.
McConkey is fruit loops, too.
Boo-
Thanks for the explanation. I was beginning to think that I was the only person in the world who had no fucking idea what they were talking about with this “spiking the football” line of commentary. No fucking idea whatsoever. I don’t even know the rules to American Football. Really. Not kidding. Seems like a stupid game to me, but that may just be me. I do like baseball though. And Rugby is way more fun to watch than American Football. But I’m a gay slut who likes to see some skin and some real muscles & other stuff, not just padding. Please forgive me. Maybe that’s TMI.
I vaguely remember this Barry Sanders guy and he seems like a first-class dude.
Thanks for the lesson in football politics.
It doesn’t matter. The wingers can trot out all the hypocritical and bad faith nitpicking they want. They would anyway. Obama just put them into check mate on all terror-related issues.
As for excessive celebration, look at the parade of bushies congratulating themselves on Osama to get a sense of how they would react if they had actually been responsible.
the best way to celebrate bin laden’s death is to pray for his victims.