Tag Archives: Plaxico Burress

With the Monday night game still to come, there weren’t any surprising results in week 12 but plenty of surprising moments.  With the Suhspension still on the horizon, there’s plenty to talk about!   I just told Microsoft Word to learn the word “Suhspension” by the way, as I doubt this is the last time I’ll be using it.

On the inside, I'm still laughing

Stevie’s Dance

By now I hope you have seen Stevie Johnson’s epic touchdown dance but if not, click the link.  After Buffalo takes a 13-7 lead against the Jets on Sunday he starts to dance, and them pretends to shoot himself in the leg before transforming into a Jet and crashing into the ground.  The first part of this dance is obviously aimed at Plaxico Burress who spent a bit of time in prison after accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a night club.  I was monitoring twitter closely when this happened, and the response was interesting to say the least.

At first everyone was laughing their ass off, posting and retweeting links to the dance.  Then as time went on a different group of people began to let their voice be heard.  It was the party poopers who thought this was a disrespectful and awful act.  I saw people calling for fines.  Well, it certainly was disrespectful…but to what level should we really be concerned about this?  Charlie Sheen’s meltdown has been referenced and parodied by people in his field, why is this any different?  If you don’t like the dance I understand, but lets just keep it in perspective.  If the personalities and celebrations I didn’t care for weren’t on center stage, my enjoyment of the game would probably be lessened.  The league could stand to be a little bit more fun from time to time.  Burress himself didn’t have much of a problem with it, saying that the mockery “Doesn’t bother me at all”.  The only people Johnson really has to apologize to are his teammates for getting a penalty.  And for the record, the gunshot part of the celebration didn’t even earn the penalty.  It was when he went to the ground that the flags came out.

That being said, I wouldn’t have a problem if Plax was pissed off.  The prison term was no doubt a very hard time in his life.  Jets fans have a right to boo Johnson, post about it on message boards, etc, but that’s where it ends.  Being made fun of is a small price to pay for being paid millions of dollars to play a game and I think Burress understands that, so good for him.

After all, he did get the last laugh.  Perhaps the next time Plaxico scores a touchdown against the Bills he will throw the ball up in the air and then drop it, Stevie Johnson style.

Tebow time…sort of.

Every week I say to people, “this just can’t keep happening” and then like clock work, once a week…it happens.

His passing stats were not completely abysmal (9 for 18 for 143 yards) but he certainly didn’t look all that impressive once again.  It took two missed field goals from Nick Novak and another incredible effort by the Broncos defense to seal the overtime victory.  It’s going to be hard to reason with Tebow-maniacs until he loses a few games, so I will avoid making anymore rational arguments until then, as I really don’t like being shouted down by people who just keep saying “HE WON THE GAME!” as if I am arguing a different point.

In a somewhat related story, as they were also involved in the game, the Chargers have apparently just quit on Norv Turner.  I don’t condone pro athletes doing such a thing, but I think if he was my boss at McDonald’s or something I’d probably react in a similar fashion as he just doesn’t seem to be an inspiring figure.  Which begs the question, why is Norv Turner trying to run the west coast offense at a McDonald’s?  I think I’ve made some good points here.

More Romo

I know there are a few people who thought the guest piece on Romo was a little unfair.  After all, Romo has been criticized by the media as hard as almost any QB in the league and to argue that he is given a pass can seem on the surface slightly disingenuous.  Thing of it is, there is a part of the media who have reacted entirely too hard in the other direction.

Take NFL.com columnist Michael Lombardi, a highly respected journalist who has worked with Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick in the past.  He wrote about Tony Romo after Thanksgiving and tried to explain his tendency to throw interceptions.

“Too much is made of Romo’s interceptions, especially early in the game.  He is like the centerfielder in baseball that can get to almost every ball, which is why he has more errors than a player that can’t cover as much ground”, Lombardi said, and my head exploded.

The Dolphins turned two early game interceptions to a combined total of 3 points.  If they had capitalized on these two picks, which set them up with great field position each time, it is very possible that the Cowboys do not win.  It is easy to glorify late game heroics, and over simplify everything else.  It’s not always as easy to take a look at what happens in a game and put it in perspective logically.  Against a better team he will not be able to get away with this.  The part about playing center field is too goofy to even dignify with a response.

That being said, Romo is playing pretty well overall the last month and has the Cowboys in position to win the NFC East.

Other Stuff

-Interesting thing happened in Baltimore on Thursday night: the 49ers couldn’t run the ball.  And when they can’t run the ball, Alex Smith looks…well, like Alex Smith.  Defensive coordinators definitely took note.

-The Houston Texans are being decimated by a gypsy curse.  They have already lost their best defensive player for the year, their starting QB for the year, their best WR for several weeks, and earlier in the year their best running back for a few weeks…now back-up QB Matt Leinart looks like he is probably done for the year with a broken collarbone.  We are sending them a copy of the Stephen King book “Thinner” in hopes that it provides some kind of solution to the problem.  If you don’t get that joke, it probably means you have good taste!

-The Buccaneers should just wear their awful orange uniforms the rest of the year, since they seem to be as woeful as the teams that donned those putrid things years ago.

-The revised Suh apology seems like it was written by the commissioner himself.  How about that!

-Caleb Hanie threw three picks against Oakland on Sunday but still almost led them to a come from behind victory.  If he would have been any worse the Bears might have tried to explore other options, and if he would have been any better they’d probably feel comfortable.  It will be interesting to see how those NFC wild card spots are sorted out.

Enjoy Monday Night football everyone!

Posted by Ben Van Iten