Conduct Unbecoming
29 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in "Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical" Yogi Bera, Only me
I was actually planning a different blog today but I think instead I will discuss football. More specifically NFL football. I love to watch football – and I’m a huge Colts fan (yes even after the past 2 weeks of disaster – I mean c’mon guys even the Pacers won in LA!). But I’m growing tired of the headlines that some players are making. Not the ones like …. well sadly I skimmed the Sports headlines and couldn’t find one that wasn’t negative. OK so I guess I’ll make up an example. A headline of “Drew Brees serves Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless” or “Michael Vick spends the day volunteering at an animal shelter.” Yeah I know the last one is pretty far-fetched but I like to write fiction.
Mostly these days the headlines the NFL players are making involve “arrested for drunk driving” and “beating up several patrons in a bar.” Then there was this Sunday’s football-turned-hockey game between the Titans and the Texans. An all out bench clearing brawl. Now I have to say it does seem that Titans player Cortland Finnigan instigated the fight by running his mouth and grabbing Andre Johnson’s face mask and as the old saying goes “you mess with the bull you get the horns.” (admittedly that is a tacky quote given the Texans longhorn mascot but I couldn’t help myself). But seriously the wrestling/punching fest on the field was too much. Here’s the part that really irritates me – both players although ejected from the game will probably continue to play. At most they may get a 1 game suspension and a fine.
So why does that irritate me? Lets change the headline from “Two NFL players get into fight on the field” to “Two firefighters get into a fight at fire” or “Two teachers get into a fight at school.” There wouldn’t be any speculation about “if” they would be suspended it would be “when” will they be suspended and “if” they will be fired. And if either of them were charged with battery they would likely never sit in a fire truck or classroom again. There is this idea the NFL needs to grasp called “conduct unbecoming.”
For example as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher my certification will be immediately revoked for habitual or excessive use of drugs, any type of drug conviction, conviction of DWI, conviction of a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude. I hold this certification basically so I can tell people over the telephone how to perform CPR, what to do if someone is choking and how to apply pressure to wounds until paramedics arrive. So I’m guessing that getting into a fight could possibly cost me this certification meaning that I would also lose my job.
I will give some credit to Andre Johnson for not making any excuses on the matter. He said he was wrong and he was sorry and he let the emotion of the moment get to him and that he felt bad because if he is suspended it will hurt his teammates. Those are some of the best things I’ve heard an NFL player say in a long time. The head coach of the Texans Gary Kubiak however was not quite as smart as his player after saying “Gosh & Golly I hope they don’t suspend him” and then awarding Johnson the game ball. Every employer has that one person that never knows when to shut their mouth and is a constant source of aggravation – and from the sounds of several other players, former coaches and commentators the NFL’s person is Cortland Finnigan – but that doesn’t mean you can slug the guy or reward the guy who slugs him. Who wouldn’t want to smack the “problem child” of their office from time to time? Trust me if you try it I guarantee that you won’t get the game ball from your boss.
Where do I apply to work for the NFL? More specifically the Houston Texans?
The NFL might fine these players, maybe suspend them a game – but the NFL is also capitalizing on the fight. It’s being replayed over and over and if you go to NFL.com the suggested items in the NFL shop are Texans stuff and Titans stuff. I’d like to know what the NFL thinks might be “conduct unbecoming” of a football player – so far I’m pretty sure as long as you don’t (directly) kill anyone you will play another day. I mean we hold standards of conduct for others that kids look up to like firefighters, police officers, teachers and soldiers why shouldn’t that include our kids favorite sports players too?
Also, if I’ve misspelled anything or used incorrect grammar in this blog I’d like to blame God. After all Bills receiver Steve Johnson decided to tweet a rant to God after dropping the game winning pass. And technically he doesn’t blame God, he just questions how a man of his insurmountable faith gets “done like that” by the Big Man. I suppose if you say your prayers daily God does owe you the ability to make an easy catch if you’re a football player. Apparently someone on the Steelers prayed harder. Does God Twitter?
Mascots
29 Oct 2010 3 Comments
in "Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical" Yogi Bera
Schools should really think hard before naming a mascot. I live in Plainfield, Indiana which was originally settled by a group of Quakers so I understand the school’s decision to pay tribute to the town’s founding fathers. But a “Fighting Quaker” just seems odd. Even the kids at the middle school have started their own Facebook page called “Fighting Quakers…wth? Isn’t that an oxymoron?” I guess the English teachers at the school should feel proud that at least a couple hundred students know what an oxymoron is. Or at least took the time to Google it before clicking “Like” on the Facebook page.
Plainfield isn’t the only school with the unique mascot. Four colleges also have the distinct “Fighting Quaker” as their mascot, most notably the University of Pennsylvania. However in a recent poll of college students in Pennsylvania on which school has the most “badass” mascot, the Quaker came in last. Not really surprising when you consider that the definition of a Quaker is “a member of a religious sect that opposes war and dresses in a simple fashion.” Not really a “badass” mascot like a dragon or a hawk. And sadly Quaker was a derogatory term in the 1600′s (i.e. the Christians and Protestants poked fun a people for being Quakers). Closer to home are the Earlham College Quakers who play in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. No polls among the students in that conference but I’m guessing the Quaker comes in at the bottom of the “badass” list – although in that particular conference you have the Transylvania Pioneers and Rose Hulman Engineers so it may be a three-way tie for last. Oh yeah and the Bluffton Beavers…. maybe a four-way tie.
My point is…. Mascots should be an animal or object you would be afraid of if you ran into it in a dark alley. Like a lion or tiger or bear (oh my!). And I used to question the “scariness” of birds as mascots until this spring when I watched a blue jay fluff my bulldog. Which brings up the whole other subject of bulldogs as mascots. They make them look really mean and scary but if you’ve ever actually owned a bulldog you know they are giant babies and that the little chihuahua next door scares the pee out of them. But see you just can’t make a chihuahua look fierce and intimidating – so no schools I know have a chihuahua as their mascot. Even bugs make good mascots because lets face it no one wants to get stung by a yellow jacket, hornet, bee or even a “skeeter” (Mesquite (Texas) High School, home of Stormy the Skeeter). And even though they have added bulging muscles and a mean “crusty” face to the Quaker he still wouldn’t be scary to meet in an alley.
I went to a college where the mascot was an owl. An owl is another one of those tricky mascots. They are kind of scary because they are one big bird with giant glowing eyes and they are nocturnal. But it’s not the same as coming face to face with a ‘gator. Add to the owl debate that the women’s teams always get teased as “hooter girls.”
Even weather events that are scary are good mascots – specifically hurricanes, cyclones and twisters. No schools are known as the sunshines… although sadly the University of Hawaii are the Rainbow Warriors. But they tend to drop the rainbow part and just go as Warriors.
The problem is that many schools determined their mascots in the early 1900′s when they were forming. And some, like Plainfield, honored their founders. Which is cool. But sometimes founders just don’t make cool mascots.
Let’s face it cool mascots are ones that can be represented by real live animals like Uga, Handsome Dan and Butler Blue (by the way Handsome Dan of Yale is the oldest known mascot to represent a school 115 years and counting – OK the live bulldog is only 4 years old but he is the 17th bulldog to represent Yale). In Texas a live longhorn named Bevo parades onto the football field and in Colorado there is Ralphie the buffalo. Mike the LSU tiger is a live bengal tiger that lives on campus – how cool is that?
Oh well, long live the Quakers – I’m sure it won’t change. However they are slowly sneaking in “Red Pride” as cooler alternative to the Quaker. The football jerseys say Red Pride and not Quakers – and most other sports uniforms say Plainfield or PHS as opposed to Quakers. Which I find odd because when you come from a school with a cool mascot (i.e. Warriors) the jersey’s have the mascot and the mascot name instead of the school name.
Even with “Red Pride” I don’t see us winning a “bad-ass” mascot title anytime soon!
Tell me what you think......