We Gotta Tone It Down

I didn't catch the 49ers/Cardinals game the other night on TV. In fact, I only catch bits and pieces of NFL games on TV. It's not that I don't like the NFL, I do. And if you've been reading my blogs at all you know how much I love football at any level. For the NFL I check the scores, watch ESPN for highlights and I pay attention to the standings. But I rarely sit down and watch more than a few minutes of a pro game. What I did see of the game disturbed me a little bit.

I saw a highlight on PTI (Pardon The Interruption), an ESPN news show that features sportwriters Tony Kornhiser and Michael Wilbon. I really like these guys because I think they're knowledegable, make sense, and are very entertaining. I like it when Wilbon calls me a knucklehead. Anyway, they showed a clip that disturbed THEM also. A defender on the Niners put a bone crushing hit on one of the Cardinal receivers. I mean, you almost wondered if the guy was dead the way he laid there. But the defender got up and raised his arms and did a blood curdling yell. He really played it up. Wilbon said it seemed to much like a gladiator gloating over a kill and I have to agree. It just didn't sit right. It was a legal hit, the guy DID get up and everything was OK but...

The NFL dances, shimmies, flexes muscles, gyrates, screams, and poses. I'm old fashioned, I struggle with it all. I know most fans love all the "look at me" stuff so it's not going away. But to put on a show when a guy was really laid out I say, "We gotta tone it down". Chiefpigskin.com