Recently, one National Football League player demonstrated conduct opposite of what athletes playing in any team sport at any level should emulate.
Meanwhile, another NFL player showed uncommon fortitude in the most trying of times.
We’ll start with the former example. In a recent NFL game between the host New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants, Saints wide receiver Joe Horn, after catching the second of his four touchdown passes on the evening, pulled out a cell phone that was planted in the goal post, in an obvious publicity stunt, and acted as if he were talking to someone.
Horn is a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver ? he doesn’t need to pull that kind of stuff. Yet, he is now lumped in the same category with me-first players such as Terrell Owens, who autographed a football with a Sharpie after scoring a touchdown last year, and Keyshawn Johnson, who lashed out at his coach earlier this season and is such a cancer that he is being paid by his team to stay home.
Makes one long for the days of Barry Sanders. Say what you want about how Sanders left the Detroit Lions about five years ago, but you have to respect him for the fact he simply flipped the ball to the ref after he scored a touchdown. He acted like he had been there before ? which, obviously, he had been.
On the flip side, there’s Green Bay Packers quarterback and future Hall of Famer Brett Favre. On Monday, Dec. 22 against the Oakland Raiders, Favre started at quarterback for the Packers, as he has done every week since the early part of 1992, despite the fact his father had passed away from a heart-related ailment the previous day.
It’s hard to imagine anyone going to work the day after the death of a parent. Yet, Favre elected to play that evening, and not only did he play, he excelled, throwing for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns as the Packers routed the Raiders.
No one can really say why Favre opted to play that evening. There are plenty of potential explanations, but no one except Favre can say for certain why he chose to move forward.
Yet, it was an unselfish and heroic action ? something Mr. Horn and others of his ilk don’t seem to understand.