Dick Butkus. Johnny Unitas. Barry Sanders. Jack Youngblood. Jim Brown. Roger Staubach. Earl Campbell. Jack Lambert. Randy White.
Russ Grimm. John Hannah. Mike Webster.
Pretty good players, huh? All Hall of Famers, all certified bad asses. What did all of them have in common? They walked the walk without taunting the other team, without feeling that it was necessary to degrade an opponent. Did they play hard? Harder than anyone. Did they dance after every first down or tackle? They would have been laughed off of the field. There would have been delay of game penalties if Earl Campbell danced every time he got a first down. How were they so good without taunting, dancing, and doing embarrassing things that no self respecting real man would be caught doing? I'm not sure. Maybe because NONE of that has anything to do with winning or losing, or being fired up or performance- ZERO! Yep, if Lawrence Taylor was being held, he told the guy that he was gonna tear his head off. Thats different. He then tried to do it.
When did this become ok? Not sure when, and don't get me started on the decline of western civilization and all that has come with the decline. Where everything is a sound bite or a mocking face at the camera or a uniform change at halftime. Yeah, that helps.
I'll just relate one story that illustrates my point-
Before every game, The Baltimore Colts would have a team meeting and there would be a bunch of we are going to do this, we are going to do that, and then someone would say, John, you have anything? And Unitas would stand up in the back of the room and say,"Talk is cheap, let's play", and he would walk out the door.
