O.F.F.:

Never Mind the Sack Dance: At last, pro football as it was meant to be. (GEOFFREY NORMAN, January 16, 2004, Wall Street Journal)

Heading into the weekend, the Old-Fashioned Football Fan has reason to be glad; even to rejoice. Both conference championship games will be played outside, in cold weather, on real dirt and grass; and the four teams still in the hunt recall the old football virtues and traditions of toughness and teamwork. The football divas who have dominated the public character of the National Football League in recent years--both coaches and players--have pretty much gone home. Most of them until next year, a few for good.

What the Old-Fashioned Football Fan values above all is team football. He never really saw the need to put names on the backs of jerseys. You knew teams by the colors they wore. Individuals had numbers. The evolution of the "look at me" performer--who could be counted on for a sack dance or an end-zone celebration even when his team was down by three touchdowns--strikes the Old-Fashioned Football Fan as poisonous to the whole ethos of the game.

During the recent regular season, the exhibitionist compulsion resulted in one receiver making a cellphone call from the end zone after catching a touchdown pass. Joe Horn of the New Orleans Saints thus one-upped Terrell Owens of the San Francisco 49ers, who had carried a marking pen into the end zone in his sock so he could autograph the ball after making a touchdown catch.

Messrs. Owens and Horn will be sitting at home this weekend, as will Randy Moss of the Vikings, probably the best of the wideouts on those days when he goes all out. Mr. Moss famously told an interviewer that he sometimes dogs it when he knows the ball isn't coming his way. The Old-Fashioned Football Fan didn't have to be told; he has eyes. The prima-donna wideout, by the way, is an especially galling specimen to the Old-Fashioned Football Fan, who believes that anyone playing that position should, by rule, have to cover kickoffs and punts.

Stupid game--good writer. Bring on pitchers and catchers.

MORE:
A Beautiful Mind: As the Philadelphia Eagles' Hank Fraley demonstrates, the behemoth who snaps the ball must also be one of the most mentally nimble players on the field (Mark Bowden, Jan/Feb 2004, Atlantic Monthly)
Ditto.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 16, 2004 5:27 PM