What is the more despicable move? Literally stomping on your opponent or celebrating a touchdown by mimicking a criminal act committed by your opponent? Detroit Lions’ defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh stomped on someone and wide receiver Stevie Johnson of the Buffalo Bills scored a TD, did a little dance, pretended to shoot himself in the leg (ala Plaxico Burress), then did the New York Jets flyby before crashing and burning.
Which one was worse?
To me this is an easy question. If you stomped on someone in the “real world.” you would run the risk of having criminal charges brought up against you. However, if you did an inappropriate little dance, you would run the risk of someone calling you insensitive. It’s a question of violently acting stupid vs. just plain stupid.
But NBC Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth sees it differently. He thinks what Johnson did was worse. From CBSsports;
“The Stevie Johnson thing was worse than Ndamukong Suh because it was premeditated,” Collinsworth said in comments released by the show. “Because he planned it out. And the reason they don’t let them do all this stuff, the NFL, is because it will always get away from them. It will always go too far. And to plan on a celebration where you’re going to shoot somebody, shoot yourself in the leg to mock another player, but the other one was even worse. To do the jet thing and fall down like a jet falling out of the sky. To me it crossed so many boundaries. It makes you want to eliminate all celebrations together.”
What Johnson did was dumb. It was a simply a dumb move that he made even worse when he executed the final part of his celebration and went down to the turf. By falling to the ground he cost his team a fifteen-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Apparently, dancing like a jackass is all good until you go to the ground. Ok…
Collinsworth goes on to say about Suh:
“Ndamukong Suh, he got mad,” Collinsworth said. “There was a fight and it’s happened to every one of us. Every one of us. We’ve jumped over and slammed somebody down.”
Recently, the two game suspension the NFL levied on Suh for stomping on that unsuspecting Packer player during the Thanksgiving game was upheld. He tried to appeal, but the League denied him, and he’ll lose two weeks pay. Johnson was fined a mere $10,000 for his infraction. I’m guessing the NFL is leaning towards the Suh Stomp being the more devious action.