Commentary
NFL does not need on-field skits PITTSBURGH-The only surprising thing about the Joe Horn cell phone incident was that an opposing player didn’t rush over to disconnect him by knocking him into the next area code.
Horn is the New Orleans Saints receiver who scored a touchdown against the New York Giants on Sunday night, then reached beneath the goal post padding for a cell phone.
His helmet still on – removing it on the field would violate NFL policy – Horn pretended to dial the phone and have a conversation, presumably telling someone how good he is.
It shows how dead and disinterested the Giants are that Horn didn’t eat the cell phone.
The gesture got Horn a couple of sideline reprimands from coach Jim Haslett, who reacted exactly the way a Pittsburgh guy would to that kind of nonsense.
Post game, Horn was unrepentant, explaining that he was just giving the fans some entertainment.
Presumably, though, the fans bought tickets to see a football game and not pantomime sketches.
There is a constant tug of war between the NFL and the players over these kinds of issues. They claim the NFL wants to legislate the fun out of the league.
The NFL can be stodgy. They have tickets and luxury boxes and TV advertising to sell and they like a lot of control over their product.
Horn’s argument falls apart because what he did wasn’t an unplanned act of natural exuberance.
How can it be spontaneous when you have props planted on the field?
Where does it end? On the same play, the quarterback could have been turning cartwheels and the linemen who blocked and allowed the play to happen could have fired up sparklers and formed a high-kicking dance line, ala the Radio City Rockettes.
If Horn wants to do skits, let him audition for the Super Bowl halftime show.
He plays for the Saints so he should be free that day.
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If you’ve ever wanted to see a Steelers home game, you’ll never have a better chance than you will on Sunday.
Expect at least 10,000 no-shows for the home finale of a lost season, which should have the street re-sellers staging the best pre-Christmas clearance in town.
Consider all the factors pointing to ticket holder apathy:
-The game means nothing to either team.
-San Diego is a lousy opponent.
-The game starts at 4, or about a half hour before it gets dark.
-It’s less than a week until Christmas, which means people will have better things to do.
-This year’s Steelers team hasn’t exactly inspired the kind of emotion that makes anyone feel obligated to give it a warm send-off. Good riddance is more like it.
There will be more people in malls on Sunday afternoon and some of the hitting there will be more vicious.
The playoff pipedream officially ended with Sunday’s snowy loss to the Jets in New Jersey but that only finalized the inevitable.
There are two games left before the Steelers get around to addressing all the things that went wrong and finding ways to improve.
If you’d like to come in make your sentiments known, getting a ticket shouldn’t be a problem.
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Fox TV likes Terry Bradshaw because he’s likely to say anything.
That’s also the worst thing about Bradshaw’s broadcast work.
On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers won and presented the game ball to a wheelchair-bound war veteran.
Fox’s cameras caught the moment and when they went back to the studio, there was genuine emotion among the panel of James Brown, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson and Bradshaw.
Brown tied the Packers’ gesture to Fox’s ongoing coverage of Sadaam Hussein, which prompted Bradshaw to say, “Osama, you’re next, my friend.”
Nothing like ruining a nice moment with mindless blather.
Bradshaw has no business making promises for the military and you don’t address a vicious killer as “my friend.”
But that’s what you get with Bradshaw. He’s a loose cannon.
When you see a moment like Sunday’s, you just wish he’d confine himself to football issues.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: begin johnmehno@lycos.com