Pass the Salt
Short and Fat has an interesting take on Albert Haynesworth's antics at the Titans/Cowboys game.
I was also at the game, though not in the luxury box like Knuck. I was the rabble he met by the plebeian beerstand at halftime. Rabble, rabble, rabble.
The crowd was an interesting mix of Titans fans, Cowboy fans and Vol fans and their cross-sections. I'm not sure what the Venn Diagram would look like of the intersection of the three groups, but I'm pretty sure you would color it red.
The Titans fans would cheer when Albert Haynesworth made a good play to stop a run, and that would excite the Vol fans, but some of them were also Cowboy fans, so it would depress them. Then Jason Witten would make a bold catch over the middle, elating the Vol/Cowboy set, but deflating the Titan aficianados. When Haynesworth stomped on that guy's unhelmeted head, the Vols, the Titans and the city were suitably embarassed. But then he apologized and took it like a man and made us all at least respect him a little bit. We'll see how he handles the suspension that definitely should be forthcoming.
All these split-second moral decisions were too much for the average Vol fan's brain to take as we all baked in the sun of a beautiful cloudless early autumn afternoon. You could hear their heads percussively exploding all over the stadium as they attempted to wrestle with ethical gray areas presented by the days events and their deep-rooted allegiences to the parties involved. It smelled a little bit like Kettle Corn.
I was also at the game, though not in the luxury box like Knuck. I was the rabble he met by the plebeian beerstand at halftime. Rabble, rabble, rabble.
The crowd was an interesting mix of Titans fans, Cowboy fans and Vol fans and their cross-sections. I'm not sure what the Venn Diagram would look like of the intersection of the three groups, but I'm pretty sure you would color it red.
The Titans fans would cheer when Albert Haynesworth made a good play to stop a run, and that would excite the Vol fans, but some of them were also Cowboy fans, so it would depress them. Then Jason Witten would make a bold catch over the middle, elating the Vol/Cowboy set, but deflating the Titan aficianados. When Haynesworth stomped on that guy's unhelmeted head, the Vols, the Titans and the city were suitably embarassed. But then he apologized and took it like a man and made us all at least respect him a little bit. We'll see how he handles the suspension that definitely should be forthcoming.
All these split-second moral decisions were too much for the average Vol fan's brain to take as we all baked in the sun of a beautiful cloudless early autumn afternoon. You could hear their heads percussively exploding all over the stadium as they attempted to wrestle with ethical gray areas presented by the days events and their deep-rooted allegiences to the parties involved. It smelled a little bit like Kettle Corn.
posted by ceeelcee at 9:15 AM
3 Comments:
I am soooooo jealous of you getting to watch Vince. I spent the last 4 years watching him at UT. What a great guy on and off the field.
Just discovered your site. Hope to visit again soon, but maybe not after I say loudly and clearly that criminal charges should be pending after that blow to the head. Played the game my whole life, it seems, and I never once saw anything like that. I just sat there, stunned, trying to figure out what to tell my 8 yr old, who is discovering the joys of this game, what happened. Sorry, Haynesworth could have been my college roomie, and I would be expecting some jail time.
I am ambivalent about whether and when to prosecute someone for excessive violence in an excessively violent profession.
Certainly it was cowardly and stupid. I would liken it to the Rudy Tomjanovich/Kermit Washington punch in that it appears to have been totally unwarranted.
But hockey? Boxing? Football? Unfortunately, half the time you reward somebody for hurting someone else and the other half you criticize them for not playing hard enough.
If I had to play judge in this case, I'd say the league and the team should handle the punitive part (at least 4 games and $50K IMHO), and that the civil court should have jurisdiction if the offended (stomped-upon) party wants to sue for damages.
But criminal charges? That's a really gray area for me.
Just one guy's $.02.
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