Stevie Johnson and his Touchdown Antics
Normally I don’t cover sports, especially not football. But in this case, I have become so infuriated with the comments against Stevie Johnson and his touchdown celebration during the Jets/Bills game on Sunday, November, 27th. The video below shows exactly what the celebration looked like. While it may have targeted two Jets players in attempt to poke fun, the celebration to me was just that…fun. Yet, here we are, seeing comments from various sports personalities on what should be done with number 13. Should Stevie be benched? Suspended? Fined? Or in the case of Meril Hodge, should Stevie be cut? Gimme a break.
When did we become so sensitive to EVERYTHING? While I guess I can agree that the dance after the touchdown was a bit excessive, I think it was pretty humorous. Stevie catches a short pass in the end zone for a touchdown and proceeds to mock Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes. Plaxico of course was caught up in an incident, where he shot himself in the leg after bringing a loaded gun to a nightclub in 2008. The man brought a loaded gun into a nightclub which luckily only hit one person. Any idiot that brings a loaded handgun into a public place and shoots himself, deserves to be made fun of.
The NFL is reportedly looking into fining Stevie Johnson for his “gun play” routine. This kind of baffles me. They don’t want Stevie Johnson pretending to playfully make a gun gesture with his hand, but it’s OK for someone to bring a gun into a public place and still play football. The NFL has notoriously kept criminals in the game, and yet a touchdown celebration seems like the worst thing in the leagues history. Again, I’m dumfounded by this logic. Michael Vick kills dogs either by hanging, drowning or shooting, and that’s just fine by the league. Let’s leave Mr. Vick alone, I mean at least he didn’t celebrate a touchdown. Ndamukong Suh stomps on someones arm, and yet, the touchdown celebration is out of line? Take a look at the arrest database for NFL players, these are the role models for kids that the league allows to play every week. Bob Costas seems to think that endzone dances are more influential than the criminals of the NFL, stating:
“For those of you too busy keeping up with the Kardashians to notice, we live in a culture that in many ways grows more stupid and graceless by the moment,” “Sports both reflects and influences that trend, so on playing fields everywhere, true style is in decline and while mindless exhibitionism abounds.”
Stevie is no stranger to attention when it comes to his celebrations. Another humorous antic, got him into trouble when he lifted his jersey after a touchdown in 2010, to reveal a “Why So Serious” message on his shirt. This was mocking the “Batman and Robin” duo of Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Again, another harmless act that seemed by many, to be over the line. Sports radio asshole Jim Rome had this to say about Stevie’s celebration:
“…He mocked a dude who busted a burning cap into his own leg and spent 20 months in the pen for doing it. Not cool, my man.“
Jet’s defensive tackle Sione Pouha missed the joke completely and called the actions of Stevie Johnson “insensitive to 9/11″. So now any plane gesture, or crashing gesture must now be equated to September 11th? Gimme a break. If you want to throw a flag on excessive celebration…fine, how about doing it the next time a defensive player makes a tackle and proceeds to dance around like a jackass, while his team is down by 20+ points. Football is already slow enough as it is, we don’t need celebrations after every play. There’s no need to feel obligated to be offended by Stevie’s celebration. That’s what I think society has come down to. We feel like we must find objection to something because of what others will think. Quit taking these things so seriously, and enjoy the game.
