I just thought I'd bring this up to generate some discussion. It may or may not. No matter.
During the past year we've seen Emry [Alouettes] punch an opponent in the crown jewels. We've seen Cornish [Stampeders] moon the SSK fans. And we've seen Mitchell [Lions] try to intimidate his opponents with silly throat slashing gestures.
I don't recall these sort of antics going on last year or in previous years but I could be wrong. Can anyone recall other incidents in previous years, maybe even going back to the 1960s or 1970s. I'm not referring to aggressive or cheap shot plays but rather to the kind of stuff above. I'm wondering why we are seeing this sort of stuff at all. Is this a generational thing? These guys were born in the early 1980s. Is there a connection here or has this stuff been around even since the 1960, and 1970s?
If some of the more "seasoned" members have any recollections I'd be interested in knowing if this is a 21st century thing.
Football is a sport of emotion and violence. Bad behavior of fans and pros have been around for decades. Usually, one bad apple can tarnish the rest of the barrel. Perhaps in today's information age, bad behavior is better reported?
I’m not overly convinced respect of others is neither worse nor better.
one of the more appalling incidents in football history regarding one of the all time CFL greats…The Johnny Bright Incident.
[b]Johnny Bright's participation as a halfback/quarterback in the collegiate football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies on October 20, 1951 at Lewis Field was controversial even before it began. Bright had been the first African-American football player to play at Lewis Field two years prior (without incident). In 1951, Bright was a pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate from Drake, and led the nation in total offense.
Bright had never played for a losing team in his college career. Coming into the contest, Drake carried a five game winning streak, owing much to Bright's rushing and passing abilities.
During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright was knocked unconscious three times by blows from Oklahoma A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. While Smith’s final elbow blow broke Bright’s jaw, he was still able to complete a 61-yard touchdown pass to Drake halfback Jim Pilkington a few plays later.
Soon afterward, the injury finally forced him to leave the game. Bright finished the game with less than 100 yards, the first time in his three year collegiate career at Drake. Oklahoma A&M eventually won 27–14.
Bob Spiegel, a reporter with the Des Moines Register, interviewed several spectators after the game, eventually publishing a report on the incident in the October 30, 1951 issue of the newspaper. According to Spiegel’s report, several of the Oklahoma A&M students he interviewed overheard an Oklahoma A&M coach repeatedly say “Get that ni##er” whenever the A&M practice squad ran Drake plays against the Oklahoma A&M starting defense, prior to the October 20 game.
Spiegel also recounted the experiences of a businessman and his wife, who were seated behind a group of Oklahoma A&M practice squad players. At the beginning of the game, one of the players turned around said, “We’re gonna get that ni##er.” After the first blow to Bright was delivered by Smith, the same player again turned around and told the businessman, “See that knot on my jaw? That same guy [Smith] gave me that the very same way in practice.”
A six photograph sequence of the incident captured by Des Moines Register cameramen John Robinson and Don Ultang clearly showed Smith’s jaw-breaking blow was thrown well after Bright had handed the ball off to Drake fullback Gene Macomber, and was well behind the play. The sequence won Robinson and Ultang the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, and eventually made the cover of Life Magazine.[/b]
It's just how memory works. Stupid incidents like this aren't remembered 30 years later unless they had some other significance. Cheap shots and trash talk/gestures have existed as long as the games themselves.
Thanks guys. I guess what I'm also wondering is whether or not it is more prolific these days. If so, I wonder why. Thirdperson mentioned perhaps it is better reported these days. That's an interesting comment. I wonder. It is just that I've never seen so many of these types of incidents all in the same year.
Hyper-saturation of coverage of these events on the internet (which didn't exist 40 years ago outside of military use) + more outrage (maybe we've evolved a little) + bigger, stronger athletes who can do more damage = what we have today. Not better or worse than the past IMO. Nostalgia for the "good old days" just dates you hopelessly as a relic of those same old days which you have a vested interest in characterizing as "good."
I’m not sure bigger and stronger athletes has much to do with it D&P. It doesn’t take a lot of strength, strength or athletic ability to punch a guy in the know whats or pull one’s pants down to moon the crowd or mimic a throat slash. When you say it’s no better or worse than in the past I appreciate that but personally I have to wonder. In the 60s and later, the papers I think would have been all over these sorts of things just so they could sell papers.
Bigger and stronger can translate into more physical damage when players take cheap shots at opponents I agree. We had that in the 60s for example when Mosca pounced on Fleming during the Lions/Ti-Cats Grey Cup ['63] game taking him out of the game. Fleming was already down and out of bounds. We still see that sort of thing today.
Maybe we’re seeing more of this stuff because of the closer camera angles on the field of play and elsewhere. Maybe back in earlier days the cameras would not have picked up on it and all we would hear is “objectionable conduct” without ever knowing why unless a sports news reporter actually saw it himself.
A relic of the good old days? :rockin: Maybe. :lol: If anything I just don’t want the CFL to deteriorate in a reality gong show.
Johnny Bright was a great player and classy guy. My sister had him for a teacher at Bonnie Doon High School in Edmonton and often spoke of what a great guy he was.
Right on, CFRadmin. That has to be one of the worse things I’ve ever seen. IIRC, it was after the play was dead an it was out of bounds. I don’t care if the victim had a helmet on, Ismail tried to crush his skull. Never cared for this overrated prima donna and that salted it. I think D+P is right about coverage. Those other things Beagle mentioned go on all the time. We just don’t see them…One time I saw a guy with skates on, try to stomp a guy in a hockey game I was playing. The offender never did it again. We called it “frontier justice”.
Consider the bounties New Orleans Saints placed on QB Brett Favre and others. Other teams may have had similar bounties, but it wasn’t institutionalized by the coaching staff the way it was in New Orleans.
There was a code of honour or conduct, if you will, that was understood by all the players and when it was broken, the players policed themselves. Late crippling hits like what Mosca did to Flemming out of bounds became infamous because the deliberate intent to injure outside the trenches was so rare in football.
I would say that since they started putting names on jerseys, players gradually became more individualistic. Then add the huge gap in salaries as TV revenues poured in and free agency. Football became more of a (cut-throat) “business” than a team sport.
There just isn’t that code of conduct or team comradery that used to exist in earlier generations. It’s all about making big plays, big hits & big money. Without refs, fines, & suspensions, we would probably see linemen with plaster casts and linebackers DBs, QBs & SBs with brass knuckles putting each other into the hospital. Safeties and wide receivers would likely be throwing salt or cayenne pepper into each others eyes.
A few days later, I saw Rocket on Speaker’s Corner telling all the little kids who wanted to be like the Rocket to not do what he did that day because it was wrong. It’s the right message, of course, I just found it kind of arrogant for someone to assume that a bunch of little kids want to be just like him.
Here’s a recent story about what some thought was a devastating cheap shot during a UOttawa/Carleton game in 1992, though the people involved now seem to say otherwise these days.