Extra Minor (And Another Thing....)

..... I love about hockey: no showboating, hotdogging, or trash-talking. The players, by and large, seem very humble and respectful of the game. They may not always respect their opponents (and there are intense rivalries in hockey that are as bitter and bloody as you'll find in any sport), but the players conduct themselves with dignity. In today's NFL, it seems like the vast majority of the players do a little celebratory dance and/or talk smack to their opponents every time they catch a pass or make a tackle. Minnesota Vikings players have been maddeningly notorious for doing this for almost as long as I can remember, and certainly since Joey Browner. The other team completes a 30-yard pass on 3rd and 22, but the Vikings defender really drilled the receiver after the catch, so his teammates come over to chest-bump and join in the gloating. NBA players routinely strut around, talk trash, show up their opponents, and play to the crowd when they dunk or block a shot. Major League Baseball players behave a little better, mostly because those players seem to police themselves the way NHL players do. If a hitter dares to show up the pitcher after a long home run, chances are he's going to get a fastball right between the shoulder blades the next time he comes up. If not him, one of his teammates (which doesn't exactly endear him to his manager or win him many friends in the clubhouse).
Sure, NHL players celebrate when they score a goal. The bigger the goal, the bigger the celebration tends to be. That's only natural and to be expected. The crucial difference is that they confine their celebrations to their teammates. In all my years of watching hockey, I have never seen a player score a goal, no matter how momentous a goal it is, and then skate over and get right in the goalie's face and start talking shit. He knows that if he does that, he's going to be picking his teeth (or some other body part) up off the ice, either right then or on his next shift - and there's always a next shift. The most I've ever seen anybody do is call out the opposing team's bench and challenge them all to a fight. Even then, the player knows he'll have to back up his words with his own fists. Even when a player really crushes an opponent into the boards, he doesn't linger over his fallen competitor. He just skates away. How refreshing.

I don't think I'm alone in feeling that the NBA and NFL would be a lot more appealing if it took steps to try to lose its "thug mentality". What are they teaching children who are watching? Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?

Cheers!