by Richard Davies Davis

Created on: December 19, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Professional football players. Who do they think they are?

I was watching the recent Monday night game between Chicago and Minnesota and it occurred to me that professional football players have an overblown perception of their own self worth.

Have you noticed how quickly they congratulate themselves? And most of the time it is for things that they should be doing routinely throughout the game?

I watched a player perform a fertility dance because he had just tackled an opposing player. Tackled a player? Isn't that what a defensive player is supposed to do. Isn't that what they earn the high salaries for? He tackled another player. What is the big deal? Should he be congratulating himself to such a degree for just doing his job?

You do not see baseball players prancing about the field every time they catch a fly ball or even when they make a triple play. It is business as usual, because they know that it is their job to make these plays.

Another player beat his chest and nodded his head back and forth like a crazy person, because he deflected a pass out of a receiver's hands. You would have thought he had just run a touchdown back for 100 hundred yards! He deflected a pass! He didn't even catch it! To me, he should have been disappointed because he did not accomplish his objective, but instead he was overwhelmed with his own adequacy!

As a youth, I remember watching professional soccer players antics after scoring a goal, and thinking that they were a little over the top! All that running about the sidelines, performing cart-wheels. But at least they had just scored a goal. And that goal was very often the only one scored in 90 minutes of playing time. Perhaps they were entitled to celebrate!
And even soccer players, who used to be the leaders in self-congratulation, do not go wild when they tackle another player, save a shot on goal or almost score a goal. No, the only time they celebrate is when they actually score a goal. Isn't that what it is all about?

In the seventies, when I became interested in football, one of the things that impressed me was the players no-nonsense approach to the game. Players did not congratulate themselves and perform dance routines for tackling a player, or deflecting a pass, or even sacking the quarterback. As far as I am concerned, a 300 lb defensive end's job is to sack the quarterback. That is why he was hired and the reason he is on the team.

But since the advent of the Deon Sanders generation of players everything has changed.

I watched a player sack the quarterback on Monday night and he almost lost it, he was that excited. That player had one sack the entire game! Should he be so pleased with himself after finally accomplishing his sole purpose for being on the team or should he be embarrassed because in a crucial game he had just one sack?

Another player almost let the time clock run out because he was too busy celebrating making a pass reception. He didn't score a touchdown. He just made a reception. He caught the ball, as receivers are paid to do.

There is not another sport played today where the players spend so much time celebrating things of minor significance.

And judging by the ineptitude of many of the players in that Chicago / Minnesota game, those players should be spending more time practicing routine plays instead of patting each other on the back when they finally manage to get something right!

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