Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A Belated Word About the Giants Loss from Sunday and Taunting in the NFL
Posted by Mike Conklin on Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 9:49 AM
I know it may seem like sour grapes to complain about what I'm about to complain about after the Giants' monumental collapse at the end of the game, but I'm not a Giants fan at all and am actually of the opinion that they're among the most obnoxiously showboating teams in the entire league and thus one of my least favorite. I also know the NFL is by far the most successful of all the professional sports leagues, and that they have very little incentive to change anything about the product they're putting out there, unless, as with the recent crackdown on hits to the head, it's a matter of the players' safety. But I also know that if they have as much interest as they say they do in getting rid of the taunting that's grown more and more ridiculous with each passing year, then DeSean Jackson's 65-yard punt-return for a game-winning touchdown should have been called back.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but no, actually, I'm not. When Jackson returned the punt, he had a very clear path directly into the end zone, and yet instead of going right in for the score, proceeded to run parallel to the goal line for almost the entire width of the field, holding the ball out for the Giants players to see. It was completely uncalled for—a blatant display of the poor sportsmanship that only leads to more displays just like it and exactly the kind of thing that's currently got the NFL bearing more of a resemblance to the professional wrestling than ever before. The way I see it, throw a flag and call that shit back—replay 4th down. You could argue that taking points off the board is too drastic a measure, and that it's just too subjective to leave up to the officials, but whatever—it's probably less subjective than the stupid pass interference rules no one can ever figure out. And I bet if they decided to enforce something like this, it probably wouldn't come up very much anymore anyway.
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