Stevie Johnson Touchdown Dance Doesn't Deserve Moral Outrage from Fans, Pundits

With two minutes to go in the first half, Buffalo’s Stevie Johnson scored on a short TD reception to put his team up 14-7 against the New York Jets. What he did next will almost certainly be the subject of breathless debate on sports talking head shows tomorrow.

Johnson’s TD celebration including pantomiming shooting himself in the leg, a reference to Jets receiver Plaxico Burress and his unfortunate mishap in a New York City night club several years ago that landed him in jail and almost ended his playing career.

Some will take a hard line stance, switching their righteous indignation generators into overdrive. The word “classless” will be bouncing around on ESPN’s studio sets like superballs.

And yet, one has to wonder why. Burress was merely a victim of his own criminal stupidity. We, as Americans, love criminal stupidity. There are TV shows which contain nothing more than dumb criminals. So what is it about Burress that somehow makes his criminal stupidity ineligible for ridicule by Johnson?

It goes back to something else Americans really love: being offended on other people’s behalf. I can understand why Plaxico would take offense to someone openly mocking perhaps the worst thing that has ever happened to him, but outside of Burress, it makes no sense for anyone else to take offense.

People, including NFL players, openly mock Tim Tebow for kneeling in prayer, as well as generally being outwardly religious. I can understand people of faith taking offense, as it’s a mockery of something they too hold dear and take very seriously. I don’t particularly care what people mock Tebow for, but I can at least understand why others might.

But this? When did being a self-inflicted gun shot wound victim become a special status group worthy of reverence and sensitivity? Burress was doing something not only phenomenally stupid, but also illegal. Why can’t that be mocked?

While one might question the timing of Johnson’s mockery, as Plaxico’s Cheddar Bob moment isn’t exactly fresh material, all that we should be discussing is whether or not it was funny. Celebrities get mocked for anything, but especially when they do something stupid, so there is no question this is fair game.

At the end of the day, it was just one rich football player poking fun at another. Either laugh or don’t, but save the moral outrage.