Stevie & stupidity

I really wasn’t planning to post something about Stevie-gate. 

But the over-reaction keeps going overboard.

First it was Bob Costas and his pompous old-fart commentary Sunday night.  He sounded so old and grumpy he made Andy Rooney seem young and cheerful.  In fact, he made Andy Rooney seem alive.

Then it was New York Jets defensive tackle Sione Pouha getting his moment in the spotlight.   Pouha said Stevie’s airplane crashing routine was insensitive to the 9/11 attacks.  Pouha, who by the way was going to college in Utah when 9/11 happened and didn’t even become a Jet until four years later, apparently has been kicked in the head a few times during pileups.

If you use his logic, aren’t the Jets being insensitive because they didn’t change their name after the attacks?  Maybe they should be the New York Towers.

Personally, I think the Jets are insensitive to the residents of New York State because they still call themselves the New York Jets even though they play in New Jersey.  For that matter, the fact that their coach has a foot fetish and their quarterback has a thing for high school girls makes them insensitive to perverts everywhere.

But I digress.

Let’s get back to Stevie.

Here’s the capper.  Today the NFL fined him $10,000.  Really?  Give me a break.  Yes, Stevie showed poor taste in mocking Plaxico Burress for shooting himself in the thigh.  But it was kind of funny.  After all, Plaxico did one of the dumbest things a professional football player has ever done.  (and we’re talking about NFL players…not too many Mensa members in that bunch)  Personally, I think Plaxico’s jail sentence was as long as it was because it included time for stupidity.  Plus the fact that he was wearing sweatpants to a nightclub.   At least they weren’t Zubaz.

But back to Stevie and his celebration.  His long, overdrawn, overly exuberant celebration.  Which leads me to my opinion on what he did.  Actually, I have several opinions.

First, I don’t have a problem with the Plaxico thing. I do have a problem with when he did it.  The great showboaters like Terrell Owens know there’s the right time to make an ass of yourself and the wrong time.  Stevie picked the wrong time.  If he had actually caught Fitzpatrick’s pass at the end of the game instead of dropping it and scored a dramatic go-ahead touchdown with a minute to go, I’d have had no problem.  But he did it in the first half.  Of a very hard-fought game.  Bad timing.  Really bad timing.

But his stupidity caused a bigger problem than his ego.  He broke the rules.  He fell to the ground.  And that’s a penalty.  In this case, a penalty that started a really bad chain of events that led to a Jets touchdown.

No, he didn’t lose the game for the Bills.  He helped the Bills lose.  But he had a lot of help.  Let’s not forget that when the Bills had a three-point lead late in the game, the defense stopped the Jets and forced a punt….and the Bills offense could have run out the clock.  Or at least gotten a couple of first downs and made it harder for the Jets to come back. 

But they went three and out.  So the Bills defense had its chance to win the game.  And they didn’t.  Remember the third and eleven that the Jets converted to a first down?

Look, Stevie is what he is.  A decent wide receiver capable of making big plays, but also capable of dropping passes at critical times.  He can be very entertaining.  And very frustrating.

He wants to be the center of attention.  Nothing wrong with that.  But I hope he’ll get that attention for what he does on the field.  Big games.  Big catches.  Big touchdowns.  Not big screw-ups.

I hope he’ll be a Bill for a long time.  And I hope there will be more celebrations.  I just hope he uses more common sense, and better timing.