Sportsmanship is the #1 topic at Owner's Meetings

Per SiriusNFL, many of the owners consider the most important topic this off season to be sportsmanship, particularly in regards to trash talking and taunting. We have already seen the discussions about banning the N word on the field, and now they will be penalizing dunks over the crossbar. Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

Do you agree with the owners on this?

NO!

Hell no. This is a business of entertainment. Do I think every tackle deserves a dance? No. I enjoy little victory celebrations after touchdowns and trash talk just makes the game more interesting and adds to the drama. I guess some would argue that the drama doesn't belong on the field, but I think that is stupid. I personally love ish like Shoeless Dick dancing with the cheerleaders. I think it is up to the refs to reign it in if things get out of hand or maybe the coaches, but instituting league rules and penalties? No Fun League. :les:

AgentDib":sokm1q9s said:

Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

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This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

It isn't sportsmanship at all. It's about making this extremely violent game more palatable to mothers.

Why are we letting owners decide rules? They are business men, most of whom have close to zero experience playing or coaching football. It seems like a dumb idea, and from the sound of the OP, it looks like it is achieving a dumb result.

Sgt. Largent":1mpqhfrm said:

AgentDib":1mpqhfrm said:

Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

Click to expand...

This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

Click to expand...

If you honestly believe that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

I'm sure at Bob McNair's yacht club, he and his fellow Fastnet competitors often share a glass of fine whiskey after a day out on the sea, but this is the NFL and Bob McNair needs to make his obscene profits and shut up.

kearly":2yb8iagk said:

Why are we letting owners decide rules? They are business men, most of whom have close to zero experience playing or coaching football. It seems like a dumb idea, and from the sound of the OP, it looks like it is achieving a dumb result.

Click to expand...

Owners may have final approval, but it's the rules committee that actually makes rules and sends them to the owners for a vote.

As for the "dunking the ball" rule, it's not new, it's enforcing an old rule. The ball and the posts are both considered "props" during celebration. They were looking the other way on it and just decided it was time to start enforcing it.

With all that said, I still think some of the rules the NFL comes up with are ridiculous, but the game still goes on and as people become accustomed to the rules, they become afterthoughts

NO FUN LEAGUE.
The next rule will be no dance celebrations on the field after a sack. Watch.

The reason for the goalpost rule is that players were occasionally knocking the posts out of alignment, which required the game to be stopped while someone came in and realigned them.

The NFL rightly gets flack for many No Fun League rules, but this one seems fine.

When I read the headline on ESPN from Mark Cuban that said the NFL would implode in about 10 years or so, and lose a bunch of it's popularity, I was hoping that he would be talking about this stuff right here. The stuff that takes away from the entertainment factor of the game. Stuff like turning the NFL more and more into the "No Fun League" ... but, if you read the article, you know he was only talking about how the league was getting greedy with it's air time and trying to make it so they have a game every day of the week. Whatever. I would welcome more NFL in my life...but not if it's going to be lame and over-regulated with penalties.

I think Cuban would have made a much better point if he had talked about how taking all the emotion away from the players is going to slowly kill the game and make it way boring to watch, especially when you see something like a huge hit, and you jump up and down hooting and hollering about the play in your living room, but if a player does that same thing on the field, your instant joy turns to frustration at the player who just made the great play!

This guys are playing a game for heck sake, it's SUPPOSED to be fun and played with emotion! So what if little Tommy gets his feelings hurt on the field when someone walks up and asks him if he's a mad bro? You're in the NFL, you're a pro! And you get paid to play a game! You're the best at what you do—if someone shuts you up, it's your job to shut them up on the next play! Excessive things like throwing a ball at someone, or running to mid-field and flaunting it on a teams logo, or pulling out a sharpie, those things are excessive and uncalled for and should be penalized, but a spur of the moment outburst of joy should be totally fair game.

Where they need to take care of this stuff is at the pee-wee, midget, junior high, and high school levels. If you remove it there, the kids are less likely to grow up and do it in the pros. I'm just saying, let the pros be pros and deal with it on the field... don't take away the fun!

kidhawk":2e728tk2 said:

Sgt. Largent":2e728tk2 said:

AgentDib":2e728tk2 said:

Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

Click to expand...

This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

Click to expand...

If you honestly believe that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I believe. It's all the old owners saying "well there was none of this dunking of footballs over the goalpost and taunting of opponents in our day, that's just not right, we need to make new rules."

Literally NO ONE cares about this stuff other than them. So who are they exactly protecting with these stupid new rules?

Sgt. Largent":3hthqhmj said:

kidhawk":3hthqhmj said:

Sgt. Largent":3hthqhmj said:

AgentDib":3hthqhmj said:

Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

Click to expand...

This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

Click to expand...

If you honestly believe that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I believe. It's all the old owners saying "well there was none of this dunking of footballs over the goalpost and taunting of opponents in our day, that's just not right, we need to make new rules."

Literally NO ONE cares about this stuff other than them. So who are they exactly protecting with these stupid new rules?

Click to expand...

It's coaches and GM's who make up the competition committee where the rules are discussed and put forth for the owners to vote on. I would think if people were up in arms over something they'd have a better understanding of the system they are complaining about.

kidhawk":28m81yuk said:

It's coaches and GM's who make up the competition committee where the rules are discussed and put forth for the owners to vote on. I would think if people were up in arms over something they'd have a better understanding of the system they are complaining about.

Click to expand...

It's not just coaches and GM's, outside alliances groups also submit new rules for consideration. Like the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an activist group submitting the new racial slur rule.

You'd think if people were up in arms about defending the rules committee, they'd have a better understanding of the system they're defending.

Does anyone see this as anything but an offended-old-man response to Richard Sherman?

Sgt. Largent":2yj8wekd said:

kidhawk":2yj8wekd said:

Sgt. Largent":2yj8wekd said:

AgentDib":2yj8wekd said:

Bob McNair was quoted as saying he thinks that officials should have thrown a lot more flags than they did last year and that it should be a point of emphasis going forwards.

Click to expand...

This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

Click to expand...

If you honestly believe that, then I really don't know what to tell you.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I believe. It's all the old owners saying "well there was none of this dunking of footballs over the goalpost and taunting of opponents in our day, that's just not right, we need to make new rules."

Literally NO ONE cares about this stuff other than them. So who are they exactly protecting with these stupid new rules?

Click to expand...

Sure they do. There's plenty of people that don't watch the NFL because they hate watching this kind of crap. I know several myself that don't watch anymore, some are racist idiots...they follow their fantasy teams and that's it. And there are plenty of mothers, especially racist mothers, who don't watch the NFL anymore. Spend some time in the south. And none of my in-laws watch the NFL anymore. Conservative, rural folk. Good people. The NFL wants these people back.

These guys are pure businessmen. They need growth in order to be successful. They need to reach more people...more importantly, they need to reach more kinds of people and also keep from losing people. Sure there's a net gain in fandom every year, but I believe that fantasy football has accounted for most of the recent growth. This isn't about how many people are going to be watching next season...this is an attempt to end a trend of bad sportsmanship- they don't want it worsening- on the contrary, they want to clean it all up.

It was said on here also that this needs to be instilled from the bottom up...implementing this in the pee-wee, pop-warner, HS levels first. Probably does, but if you allow it in the NFL, the kids will be doing it no matter what. End it in the NFL, and everyone wins (most importantly the owners).

Would you really quit watching the NFL if the small amount of smack that the TV viewer can actually see was eliminated? Nope, no way. However, it may prevent more people from dropping out. If it wasn't good business they wouldn't want change.

Sgt. Largent":1gfdh9lo said:

kidhawk":1gfdh9lo said:

It's coaches and GM's who make up the competition committee where the rules are discussed and put forth for the owners to vote on. I would think if people were up in arms over something they'd have a better understanding of the system they are complaining about.

Click to expand...

It's not just coaches and GM's, outside alliances groups also submit new rules for consideration. Like the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an activist group submitting the new racial slur rule.

You'd think if people were up in arms about defending the rules committee, they'd have a better understanding of the system they're defending.

Click to expand...

The rules committee goes through all suggested rules (and/or comes up with their own) and sends them to the owners for approval. Suggestions come from multiple sources, but that's not even the point. The point is trying to be made that the owners don't make the rules, they only get the final vote on the rules. You said and I'll quote it so you're not confused:

This is the problem in a nutshell, bunch of old rich white dudes pushing their moral agenda on the league trying to fix things that 99% of fans and players don't think is a problem.

"OMG, look at that angry black man taunting his opponent, we never did that in 1956............new rule!"

Click to expand...

Owners aren't making these rules, as your comment suggests, they just give the final approval (or disapproval) of rules that have made it through the competition committee, which is made up of coaches/GMs.

Edit to fix an error in the copy/paste of the quote

I don't mind any of the bravado and brash stuff. What I didn't like was Jimmy Graham dunking the goalpost on the Hawks in the midst of a blowout; I don't mind the act - just the ridiculous timing.

I do love the Marshawn pulled off some extreme disrespect of the 49ers and I'm not sure if 'walking too slow' into endzone would in any way be enforceable.

kidhawk":2y25xfsy said:

Owners aren't making these rules, as your comment suggests, they just give the final approval (or disapproval) of rules that have made it through the competition committee, which is made up of coaches/GMs.

Click to expand...

You don't think Bob McNair has any influence over one of his employees (Rick Smith) when it comes to what's brought before the competition committee? That's naive.

Why would coaches and GM's care about their players dunking over goalposts? Procedural rules that affect the game? Yes, those are things that matter to coaches and GM's. But don't kid yourself, all these new "code of conduct" rules are directly influenced by the old boy network and outside alliances and groups with agendas. Politics doesn't stop in DC, it's in every business.........including the NFL.