Troy's TD dance: Fair or foul?
There's a good chance that not all of you saw Troy Smith's 15-yard touchdown run that gave the Ravens a 48-3 lead with just over five minutes to play in yesterday's win over the Lions.
Hey, if you turned the game off early, you'll hear no complaints from me. By the end of the third quarter I was checking the NFL rule book to see if the league had established a mercy rule that I was unaware of.
If you didn't happen to see Smith's TD, you also missed the dance that followed it.
That dance got the attention of a lot of fans and media members, and over the past 24 hours, Smith has garnered a good bit of criticism for strutting his stuff in the end zone with his team leading by 45 points.
If you didn't see the dance or just want a refresher, here it is.
On one side of the coin, Smith has played sparingly this season, and this was the first time he was personally involved in a regular season touchdown since Nov. 9 of last season. Some might say the guy deserves a chance to celebrate a little.
Others might disagree. Others like Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser from ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.
On their show earlier this evening, Wilbon and Kornheiser brought up Smith's touchdown dance, asking each other if the celebration was "fair or foul".
"There's nothing fair about it," Wilbon said. "It's just stupid. You don't need this."
"I'm going to be very brief on this," Kornheiser responded. "This was despicable. They were up 48-3. This guy has won the Heisman. He has a sense of time and score. He has to be classier than this. It put them up 48-3. You don't make that dance. You don't."
Head coach John Harbaugh wasn't asked about the celebration in his Monday press conference, but I'd imagine that he and the rest of his coaching staff probably weren't too thrilled with the dance either.
Just a hunch.
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Categories (click for archive)Dan Kolko | Ravens News |
I totally agree with Kornheiser/Wilbon. Particularly considering he is a quarterback and should be a leader on the team. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I prefer the days when someone scored a touchdown and acted like they expected to score, and simply gave the ball to the ref. Have some class Troy!
Might not have been the classiest move but, even so, I have seen dances by teams losing by that much after scoring a TD???
C'mon people... Kornheiser has been an anti- Baltimore guy for years... which was evident during his stint with MNF. Look... Troy is a back up QB who has been through training camps, countless practices and team meetings who knows the playbook inside and out. He finally gets his chance to shine and he does. Big deal! He didn't go mouth off to the Lions bench. He got a very, very rare opportunity to lead the ravens on a drive and he seized it. I agree with Sadaka that the old days where dances and spiking are long gone... but I'll take a class act guy like TS who practices hard and has a little fun when he gets a rare opportunity.
Give me a break Sadaka, Kornheiser and Wilbon are two talking heads that sit back and hate on everything fun about the game. This is not Ochocinco pulling out a costume, this is not TO celebrating on the star in Dallas. This is a kid who, yes, did win the Heisman, and has gotten continually shafted in the NFL. He fell to the 5th round because he wasn't X, Y, or Z. The Ravens took a flyer on him, and then turned around and drafted a franchise QB with their #1 pick the very next year. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that from an organizational standpoint, and I don't think the Ravens made any overtures of him competing for a starting job at any point. But you have to understand that for an athlete of that caliber, that's a tough pill to swallow. After winning the Heisman, he gets to sit back and hold a clipboard for the first 14 weeks of the season before finally getting some game time in a blowout win. I know it's the Lions. I know we're up by 38. But this is a kid that deserves his 15 minutes of fame, and if anyone was truly offended by it then they need to take a step back. This is not one of the bad apples in the league, this is a good guys and a team player, and to me this is a total non-issue.
Kornheiser showed his priorities by starting off by referencing himself. "I'm going to be very brief on this..." Are you going to be brief, Tony? Cause when I'm brief, I get to the f-ing point and cut it. I'm not really enthused with Smith's dance, but Kornheiser calling it "despicable" is over kill. How is that any better than the dance itself?
It showed poor decision making, not what coaches want to see out of their QB's. Troy, act like you have been there. The whole thing was lame
I don't really like the dancing anytime in a game.
Dan- I took the MASN survey and rated you as Excellent. Keep up the good work! Thanks for keeping me close to the team even though I am in PA.
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Brad,
Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. Glad I can help you keep up with your squad from enemy territory.
-Dan
I wish people would relax. Troy was excited to have gotten a TD himself. What's wrong with that? And is it really that bad? Could his dance really make the Lions feel any worse. I say no.
Dan-
I wish "Totally Nerdy" was an option, because thats all it was.
Anyway.
Foul!! Terrible. Classless. If I was the coach I'd fine him. Each week the Ravens implore the fans to behave with the saying "Don't be a jerk". Maybe they should say the same to the players.
In the immortal words of Keyshawn Johnson: C'Mon Man!!! (to anyone hatin' on Smith)
Smith is the epitome of class. He was to be the heir to McNair, but the illness cost him his job. Thanks to Flacco being a rookie stud, Smith's chances to start are gone unless he leaves for FA for a team that will actually start him. Thus the only time he sees the field barring injury is during a blow-out. Does he complain; no. Does he play halfheartedly; no. He does his job and does it with 100% commitment. His dance was an interpretative piece based on his inner-plight from being 2nd string! It wasn't offensive, or crude; it wasn't Chad Johnson-esque excessive; it was simply a player happy to finally get pay-dirt. It's the NFL. They're highly paid professional athletes. Maybe if the Lions didn't suck they wouldn't have to worry about emotional frailty as a result of their own incontinence.
-Dan what's your take on the issue? I didn't really see much opinion injected into the article. Similar to what Brad said, you're the man. I read and respect your writing much more than the pessimistic bums at the Sun. Your takes are fresh and you're prompt to give feedback to readers. Keep it up!
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James,
Thanks a lot, man. That really means a lot. To be completely honest, I'm not really passionate on the topic one way or another. I didn't think much of the dance when I saw it live, but looking back, I can see how some people could take offense. At the same time, like some have said, it didn't seem like he was purposely rubbing it in the Lions' faces, he just wanted to strut his stuff a little after making a nice play. My only issue with the whole thing was the dance itself. Work on your moves, Troy. Those skip moves were a little weak.
-Dan
The whole act like you've been there sentiment is lame. People have celebrated in one form or another for a LONG TIME. One man's dance is another man's spike. No one complains about the Lambeau Leap. Years later I still see clips of the Icky Shuffle. Get over it. Besides, seeing as how he's a back-up who only got in because the Ravens dominated who knows when he'll get there again.
If the media wants to spit venom, maybe they should do it at the Detroit Lions. It's not up to the Ravens to spare their feelings and stop trying to play football just so they don't embarrass them. The Lions completely rolled over and gave up trying to block, tackle, and pick up assignments.
The Ravens did their part and stuck to the ground game. If no one on the Lions wanted to make tackles that's on them. Smith was simply celebrating a TD and not instigating or showing anyone up. Honestly, even if he was, the Lions deserved it. They deserve no better treatment for the way they rolled over and quit. They may as well have walked off the field after the third quarter and declared the Ravens the winner by forfeit.
Dan,
For anyone to even complain about this is ridiculous. So what he danced? Big deal. There are worse things going on in the league for this to even be a "Pardon the Interruption" topic. Clearly in a 48-3 game, the only thing the media will do is look for what players do wrong. I personally couldn't care less. How about that guy who shall remain nameless, but he announces that he will perform celebrations in which he KNOWS he will be fined, yet do them anyway, as if to say to heck with the rules. How come that hasn't been brought up on these sports shows yet? Jim Rome is Burning featured that as a topic, and maybe on a few others, but I haven't seen it.
My point is, this just looks like something they're looking to complain about. It really is the Lions' fault. As you well know, Dan, you run the ball as a way of calling off the dogs when you have a big lead, but it was as though we could've just crawled on our knees and we probably would've still scored. I think this was pretty mild compared to other things going on in the league right now.
I'll take Troy Smith's dances (which was not as bad as Mark Madson but wasn't far off either) to Randy Moss half assing it all day.
Dancing is part of the game now thanks to Muhammad Ali and the Miami Hurricanes of the 80's. It shouldn't matter if you're the greatest ever or a back up. Kornheiser and Wilbon will only call the non star athlete despicable. I don't ever hear Kornheiser or Wilbon say anything bad about Ali's ring behavior (Troy Smith is obviouslly not Ali, but hopefully you get my point).
Dance away Troy! How many people get to score an NFL touchdown. I know if I scored one, I'd be doing a Mark Madson Chad Ocho Cinco Line dance or possibly a Deion Sanders (man that guy was good).
If the Detroit Lions didn't want to see a TD dance by our backup quarterback, maybe their defense should have stopped the purely run-based offense in the 4th quarter by the Ravens' second-string team from scoring a QB scramble TD from 15 yards out.