Excessive Unsportsmanlike Behavior

Ndamakong Suh was just recently suspended for two games for his actions a week ago in the Thanksgiving Day game versus the Packers, where he stomped on a Packer player’s arm and was ejected from the game.

A few days later on Sunday, Stevie Johnson of the Buffalo Bills had a great game.  He scored two touchdowns and almost led his team to a victory over the Jets.  Most people don’t remember his performance, though; they remember the celebration of his performance. After one of his touchdowns he celebrated by pretending to shoot himself in the leg with a fake gun (made from his hands).  It looked like it was the act was aimed toward Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who was recently released from prison after a nightclub shooting where he shot himself in his leg.  Johnson was fined $10,000 for the act and gave an apology to Burress, but what type of impact does something like this have on the viewers, in particular children?

In some of the discussions brought up by the ESPN analysts about both Suh and Johnson, they kept mentioning how there are children watching and that this behavior projects a bad image for themselves and the league. But which one is worse? Suh stomping on an opposing player due to his “aggressive play” or Johnson going out of his way to celebrate a 4 yard touchdown?  Dirty play like what Suh displayed on Thanksgiving probably is worse for the eyes of the younger audience; we do not want them to begin hitting players outside of the whistles in Pop Warner leagues after watching Suh.  At the same time, though, the young players should not learn to celebrate like Johnson (using fake guns). The NFL is entertaining, but the players in the league need to put things in perspective and think about what they are teaching the youth.