Taunting? Bring It BACK!

Taunting? Bring It BACK!
M.D. Wright
5.24.09

As we continue to watch the pussification of pro sports before our eyes -- you won't be able to touch Quarterbacks in the NFL pretty soon (while Running Backs continue to get clobbered on every play in every conceivable way), the NBA won't allow defensive players to hand-check offensive players (with the hopes of increased scoring -- meanwhile the 90s NBA was the most watchable version of the product) and well, the MLB could benefit because 70% of the league (including pitchers) were roided up from 1988-2008, by all accounts. NHL players can still beat each other about the face, and I'm glad. Hockey wouldn't be as palpable without it.

This and one other thing, which has been been stripped from nearly every sport: TAUNTING.

The NBA won't allow a guy to push down a defender attempting to block his shot, stand over him, yell taunts (as anyone in an emotionally-charged moment would do), NFL players can't clock a guy's clock on a good hit and stand over him like Jack Tatum did Sammy White in Super Bowl XI

MLB players like Manny Ramirez can't stand and admire his home runs for an hour -- without being beaned the next time he came to the plate (or one of his teammates).

Listen, taunting is part of the game. You grow up doing it. It's not "BUSH LEAGUE". It is what you do when you execute a play superior to the guy defending (or offending) you. It doesn't always perpetuate fights. It isn't a gateway act. And if it does lead to fights, so what? That's life. We fight playing pickup ball in the streets. We fight playing tackle football at our high school alma maters. We fight in Park & Rec leagues. But you know what? UNLESS YOU'RE PUSSIFIED, that's where it ends and you could even fight your homeboy and go right back to being cool after the game.

When will David J. Stern and ROGER GOODELL (who, if he botches this Vick thing, along with a long line of policies he's instituted that I do not agree with nor like at all, will REALLY be on my X-List) get it? These esoteric corporate sponsors aren't as wary about all these things as the leagues claim. These same sponsors air commercials that elicit the same responses from the people who view them and subsequently buy their product. Call it what it really is.

Oh. You can't do that, Rev. Al, the NAACP and any other liberal special interest group will be up your culo. THAT'S your bigger concern. Not sponsors jumping ship.

TAUNTING IS PART OF SPORTS. It drives you to be better so the guy can't have a reason to do it in the future. Plain and simple.