The selfie generation and the future of football

[Citizen]

The vast majority of NFL fans in 2019 love that stuff. It's part of the show. We old-timers are the only ones tut-tutting.

[Rupert Patrick]

Coaches back in the day wouldn't have put up with the over the top nonsense that they do now because they didn't have to fear damaging their relationships with their sensitive, pampered, millionaire babies...uh, I mean, players. The occasional Elmo Wright or Billy "White Shoes" Johnson TD celebration seemed like good clean fun but guys dancing around and strutting after making a simple tackle or a pass reception for a first down is hard to watch and embarrassing. It's a shame and a sign of the times that they don't seem to know and/or care how it makes them look.

I remember the end zone celebrations started to get out of hand and the NFL had to step in and stop them; I think it was 1983 or so, and I think it was the Redskins Fun Bunch group celebration that was the straw that broke the Camel's back. The same sort of thing happened in the 90's when players, most notably Emmitt Smith, would take their helmets off and run around and celebrate after running for three yards on a second-and-eight play, and the NFL had to prohibit players from unnecessarily making the games run about 20 minutes longer than they should. The end zone celebrations have been getting more and more elaborate over the last few years, and at some point in the near future, it is going to come to a head and the NFL is going to stop it and it will not be soon enough for me.

[RRMarshall]

Before the Fun Bunch I can recall Mark Gastineau's idiotic "Sack Dance" circa 1981. That probably would have gotten him on Dancing with the Stars today! In the 70s there were all the different TD celebrations from Billy "White Shoes" Johnson all the variations of the end zone spike; the hard spike, the soft spike, (my favorite was the dice roll spike!). I'm glad they don't do this in college or the high school game. I've learned to turn away from the screen after a score now and head out of the room since the commercial break is coming up.

[sheajets]

I hated Gastineau's sack dance. He really went overboard with it

Also another consequence of all this showboating is that it angers and humiliates the opposing team, which could lead to somebody losing their cool, retaliation, injury etc. It's all fun & games until somebody breaks his wrist on a beaning after an obnoxious bat flip a day earlier

[James]

This is what I HATE about football now. What's even worse, is when a team is losing 41-0 and a player on losing team makes a first down or gets a sack and is celebrating. What the fuck, y'all are losing! The end zone celebrations are getting worse and worse. I wish the NFL would put a stop to all this nonsense.

[7DnBrnc53]

They're kids, well-paid kids mind you, but kids destroying their bodies for our entertainment. If they want to have some fun out there while they're doing it, I'm fine with it. I do find it annoying sometimes, but I've decided that says more about me than it does about them and I'm not going to worry about it anymore.

That’s the thing: We allow them to be kids. In the 1960s and 1970s we saw football players as men because they behaved like men. (Their counterparts in Nam grew up to be men really fast.) The same is true for all previous generations of football players. I believe young adults act like kids nowadays because our country hasn’t had a war of any consequence for the folks back home for so long now there’s no longer an incentive to behave like a man. Heck, we take out our enemies with video screens and joysticks nowadays. If you go further back and look at the college teams, and if you look at the college newspapers, even college students behaved and dressed like adults. Sure, they had fun, but when it came time to behave like men they did. Of course, nobody calls out this juvenile behavior because of the entertainment value. At some point I think it will get old to the point that it hurts interest in the game. The XFL is just going to make things worse because those ridiculous behaviors will leak over into the NFL.

I don't think war is the answer (Edwin Starr's song was right: War isn't good for nuttin', and I would advise my kid(s) [if I had any] to avoid the military because you are fighting for the rich, not the people). However, we need something when kids are in High School that is sort-of like the military (I am not talking about high school football or any sports) where kids can learn discipline and life skills.

[Rupert Patrick]

I hated Gastineau's sack dance. He really went overboard with it

Also another consequence of all this showboating is that it angers and humiliates the opposing team, which could lead to somebody losing their cool, retaliation, injury etc. It's all fun & games until somebody breaks his wrist on a beaning after an obnoxious bat flip a day earlier

I read about Beckham Jr. wearing that 300K or whatever it was worth watch during the Week 1 game and thinking if I was an opposing player playing against him and if I knew how much that watch was worth, I would have made it a point to find a way to make sure that watch was broken by the end of the game just to teach him a lesson, even if I got a fine from the league for doing so.

[Bryan]

The same sort of thing happened in the 90's when players, most notably Emmitt Smith, would take their helmets off and run around and celebrate after running for three yards on a second-and-eight play

I was going to mention Emmitt Smith. I think my dislike for him taking his helmet off and 'celebrating'/taunting was in part due to my dislike for those early 90's Cowboys teams. I really don't mind TD celebrations, celebrations after big plays, etc. Some of it is stupid, but I can live with it. The one thing I can't stand, and my esoteric knowledge traces its origin to Cris Carter, are guys who celebrate first downs. That is just 'a bridge to far' for me.

[BD Sullivan]

After the 1983 season, the NFL cracked down on on-field celebrations as a result of fights resulting from what was perceived as taunting. Gastineau sparked a brawl in 83 when they played the Rams, while the Fun Bunch celebration came when the Skins went into Dallas and humiliated the Cowboys.

[Jay Z]

Was Johnny Blood an adult?