Stupidity

I once watched then San Francisco 49ers quarterback, and current Chicago Bears quarterback coach, Matt Cavanaugh take off his football helmet and enter a very congested melee. Punches were being thrown from a dozen football players from two dozen directions and Cavanaugh thought that his helmet could be better served as a weapon rather than for protection. It was one of the dumbest decisions that I've ever seen made on a football field. Gus Frerotte head-butting a wall is close. He sprained his neck. Bill Gramatica celebrating a made field goal, a field goal that gave his team an early 3-0 lead, so exuberantly that he tore his own ACL is even closer. These were very stupid decisions. Frerotte and Gramatica will be known forever for those decisions. They also suffered injuries due to their stupidity. Cavanaugh could have been killed. Instead, nothing happened and I might be the only that even recalls the event. Football fights are pointless. About the only thing that you can do to a fully armored football player is poke him in the eye. The Three Stooges in pads. Many helmets don't even allow that sort of intrusion. Cavanaugh was probably the smallest, weakest football player on the field. Jumping into that brawl was a mistake. Jumping into it without a helmet was simply stupid. Besides, quarterbacks don't enter fights. Quarterbacks are usually the reason for football fights.

For about thirty years, Matt Cavanaugh held my title for stupidity on the football field. He has it no more. Move over Matt Cavanaugh, Jimmy Graham has the floor. Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson might have been the first football player to decide that celebrating a touchdown by dunking a football over the goalpost would be a swell thing to do. He certainly wasn't the last. A lot of the celebrations that we see on the football field today originated from that celebratory decade of the 1970s. The decade that apparently took the "m" and the "e" out of team. Several football players since Henderson have used the goalposts as part of their celebrating. Some have even dunked the ball over that always enticing crossbar, including New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham. Fine. Dunk the football. Dance around. Smile at the camera. Waste some time. Go to your sideline. Unlike the rest of his celebrating brethren, Jimmy Graham has to actually grab the goalpost as he dunks the ball over it. This wasn't really a problem until the genius knocked the goalpost askew during his obligatory, celebratory dunk in Atlanta last season. This stunt delayed the game so that the goalpost could be righted again. It also forced the NFL to make such celebrations illegal. It's now an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. When Graham, or anyone, pulls this stupid stunt the Saints, or another offending player's team, will be kicking-off from the 20-yard line rather than the 35. Football games have always been a battle of field position. This is the sort of situation that can tilt that battle. The unsportsmanlike penalty also brings a fine upon the offending player. A fine in excess of $10,000 for the first offense and increasing amounts for each additional offense. When news that his signature move would be illegal broke, Graham simply, and selfishly vowed that he would lead the league in penalties. Is he joking? If last Friday's preseason game is any indication, Graham wasn't joking. He scored two touchdowns. He dunked over the goalpost after each touchdown. Maybe, he's just getting all of it out of the way during the preseason. The games don't really matter so his games don't really matter. Well, they do matter. It's clear that Jimmy Graham doesn't give a shit about his team or his coach. Sean Payton was pissed. That much was obvious at his postgame press conference. Maybe, little Jimmy was just blowing off some steam after his offseason financial squabbles with the Saints and the NFL's out-of-whack franchise tag rules. That little battle should have been settled when team and player agreed on a long-term contract. No, this little stunt was all about the self. It's possible to be an individual in a team sport without it costing your team. Jimmy Graham has freakish athletic ability. He's a fantastic football player. He should let that set himself apart. His acts of defiance and selfishness simply make him look like an idiot. For that, he's taken the crown long held by Matt Cavanaugh. At least the foolish quarterback was thinking more about his team first. Graham has since since that he's through dunking but we'll see.