Stop pretending the emphasis on taunting calls is about setting an example.
The weird thing we’re talking too much about this NFL season is taunting. We’ve covered a fair bit of it here at For The Win because the calls are so often confusing and disruptive to the flow of the game.
Also, it’s lame. Playing NFL football is incredibly brutal. Players are risking life-altering injury on every play. They suffer 50 impacts every game harder than most of us will ever feel. Let them have a little bit of fun when they succeed. That’s part of the drama we as fans want to see!
And please spare us with the stuff about respecting the game and your opponent. These men are attempting to batter each other into submission. You can dress up the gladiators all you want, the end result is the same.
Perhaps what is most annoying about the wave of taunting calls is that nobody will admit what it’s really about. The NFL Competition Committee — made up of coaches, front office people and owners — made the call to push officials to whistle more of these fouls, and their justification has mostly been “won’t you think about the children?”
The latest person to uphold that viewpoint is Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy, whose team took the brunt of an absolute clown call on Cassius Marsh in a Monday Night game against the Steelers.
Here’s what Nagy had to say recently, per PFT:
“People watch, and people want to see a little bit of respect and a little bit of doing things the right way,” Nagy said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, but there’s young kids right now that are watching games, and what happens is you go to one of these sporting events and you might see some imitation going on that’s taking it over the top. I’m a firm believer in respect and just kids growing and watching and we have a huge platform as leaders. Players and coaches. Let’s understand what the rules are, let’d do it the right way. Let’s still have fun — these guys are still having fun and not taunting. You can still have a great time. But let’s stay within the rules as we do it.”
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, a member of the competition committee, has previously said something similar and, well, this is not it, gentlemen.
Yes, the NFL has broad cultural sway and young football players look up to NFL stars. But those same kids have parents, teachers and youth coaches who can correct them on that behavior if they do copy it to an extreme.
Kids are constantly bombarded by images of grownups doing things they cannot or should not do; the act of raising children is, in so many ways, helping them understand how they can get there. Do football men really think I’m flipping the game on looking for life lessons — why, yes, if your co-worker makes a mistake you should grab them by the face mask and unleash a spittle-laced tirade upon them! — or because football is an awesome athletic display that leads to games that frequently tilt back and forth in dramatic fashion?
Besides, I’ve coached rambunctious 8-year-olds and they mostly don’t even pay attention to the score of the game or who does what in any meaningful way. They sometimes play in the dirt, they often sweetly encourage struggling teammates and mostly they’re just wondering what flavor the Gatorade is going to be after the game.
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Older players might be more apt to imitate what they see on an NFL field, but again, there are coaches and officials present to regulate that. I promise you that it’s OK if Cassius Marsh takes a few steps toward the opponent’s sideline. Football will not be devoured by the enraged ghosts of Lombardi and Landry and Bryant and Paterno. The game will go on.
If I’m lucky enough to continue coaching kids as they enter into more competitive age-groups, and one of them does, in fact, taunt another player, I will, of course, be mortified. I’d rather have them focus on their own play and on supporting their teammates, and I’ll say as much. But also I know how incredibly fickle sports can be, and that the taunting may very well come back around — or, worse, the other team will just win and walk away — and understand that sometimes that’s the best way to learn a lesson.
So, NFL, just stop. You’re needlessly hurting your product. Andy Nesbitt urged you to just last week. The late, deeply missed Chris Chase wrote as much EIGHT YEARS AGO.
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At the very least you must include the players in these decisions. Your Competition Committee is made up of people whose job it is to exert control over the people who are actually doing the competing. The rich old owners — and the CEO of the sponsors who support their team and make them richer — crave some old-fashioned idea of decorum and coaches always prefer that players just do the work and get back to it.
But you’re robbing the game of its joy and making it feel less authentic, all in the name of a straw-man argument. If you’re actually worried about the kids, then the league and individual owners can make a more concerted effort to funnel money into youth programs that would give leaders who actually influence children much-needed resources (or just, you know, pay taxes rather than exploiting loopholes that limit what you owe so that schools can be better funded.)
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