Defense of Elijah Moore's Ole Miss dog-pee stunt is nonsense

Gee, how these boiler-plated consolation statements rust quickly. Theres that Our thoughts and prayers canard, and that solemn player-down-and-out, This puts everything in perspective chant that lasts for about two more plays.

Gee, how these boiler-plated consolation statements rust quickly. There’s that “Our thoughts and prayers …” canard, and that solemn player-down-and-out, “This puts everything in perspective” chant that lasts for about two more plays.

My favorite is when teams, leagues or schools claim to have adopted “a zero-tolerance policy.” That implies a tolerance of zero percent. What was the previous policy, 12 percent, 20?

And now there’s, “That’s not who I am,” or, “That’s not who he is.” That’s right, the player who just did what he did is someone else.

Thanksgiving night, Ole Miss lost its 115-year rivalry game to Mississippi State, 21-20. With 4 seconds left, Ole Miss’s Elijah Moore scored for the final points. The PAT, after being backed up 15 yards for a penalty against Moore, was missed.

Moore was flagged for his “natural, post-touchdown enthusiasm,” as per Roger Goodell’s invites to further diminish football. He went to his hands and knees then lifted a leg to mime a urinating dog, a 15-yard move copied from the always classy and selfless Odell Beckham Jr.

Wow!!! Ole Miss loses Egg Bowl because Elijah Moore did a dog peeing celebration after scoring the game tying touchdown.

15 yard penalty pushes PAT further back, and it goes wide right!! 🤣🤣

pic.twitter.com/skcya7tw0Q

— Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) November 29, 2019

No better was the rest of the game or telecast. Ole Miss was able to score that last TD via a roughing-the-passer call. And endless posing and preening by the players was ignored or indulged.

Finally, ESPN/SEC Network’s play-by-play man, Adam Amin, who screamed his way through the game, did not speak even one word of condemnation for Moore’s game-changing misbehavior.

Afterward, Ole Miss coach Matt Luke defended Moore with, “That’s not who he is.” Then who is he? Someone else?

Whatever, that puts everything into perspective. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who aren’t who they are.

Landry is not good judge of what is ‘too severe’

Is everyone entitled to their opinion? Everyone? I guess, but some seem less entitled than others.

Last week, Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry made national news and noise when he complained to ESPN that the open-ended suspension of teammate Myles Garrett is “too severe.”

Landry also supported Garrett’s unsubstantiated, specious and perhaps defamatory week-later claim that Steelers QB Mason Rudolph precipitated the helmet-swinging brawl by calling Garrett an unspecified racial slur, something that went unheard by the half-dozen players — Landry was nowhere close — in the midst of the pile-turned brawl.

Naturally, none of these reports mentioned that Landry, in 2016, was the beneficiary of the absence of NFL severity after he, then with the Dolphins, ended the career of Bills defensive back Aaron Williams with a vicious, illegal and excessively dirty leaping crack-back hit to Williams’ head.

That shot, brutality in the first degree, can still be seen on the Internet. Landry’s punishment fell far short of severity. He was flagged and later reportedly fined.

After the game, Landry apologized for injuring Williams, but he never acknowledged the flagrant illegality of the hit. He did, however, excuse himself with, “Call it what you want. It’s football.”

I read, heard or watched several reports carrying Landry’s complaint of NFL severity on Garrett’s behalf, but not one included a mention of Landry’s career-ender against Williams. If everyone’s entitled to their opinion, Landry’s belongs in the pile labeled “Least Entitled.”

The long list of expensive demands made by Greg Schiano to return to coach Rutgers football are unintentionally perversely comical, given that RU is a publicly funded college — and one that once proudly put academics far ahead of sports, especially pre-Big Ten, when its football teams were able to compete.

No, he doesn’t want ownership of the Turnpike toll nearest the Goethals Bridge, but close.

According to The Star-Ledger, Schiano wants a membership in a private country club. Rutgers has its own tennis courts, swimming pool and golf course — the latter not bad, either, but apparently not nearly good enough for Schiano.

In addition to the usual perks — a car, housing, travel costs for him and his family, $100,000 for relocation fees — his buyout terms would total $25.2 million. That’s in addition to a $4 million per salary plus $400,000 every two years in “retention bonuses.”

The average salary for a fully tenured RU professor is $161,000, but most RU academicians make far less.

As for his unlimited use of a private jet, that reportedly created some blowback among those assigned to recruit Schiano regardless of what it will cost taxpayers and students. Their feedback is unsolicited and irrelevant. They’re just dupes. And RU student “activity fees” already well exceed the national average.

But perhaps opposition to Schiano’s private jet demand is preemptive to prevent him from demanding a private airport.

Radke Blough his recap

Any stat, any time: Westwood One’s radio play-by-play man Ryan Radke had nearly the entire first half of Thursday’s Bears-Lions wrapped up nicely: the surprising good play of third-string Detroit QB David Blough in his first NFL start.

Then Radke blew it. As if anything that happened previously this season had anything to do with Blough, the Lions, he reported “are 15th in red-zone offense.”

Checkout counter: Another good one from Mike Francesa-tracker @backaftathis:

On Dec. 22 last year, he told a caller that Louisville’s Lamar Jackson doesn’t have the arm to play QB in the NFL: “I don’t think he’s a QB. … I think he can play in the NFL at another position.”

Wednesday, when a caller reminded Francesa that he dismissed Jackson — an NFL sensation as the Ravens’ QB, as an NFL QB — Francesa replied, “I never said he should change positions.”

Time for Sarah Kustok, analyst on YES’ Nets telecasts, to tighten it up. She tends to talk shot-to-shot as if trying to legitimize her credibility, which she has already established.

Perhaps Booger McFarland, Monday night on ESPN, will again try to explain why he’d prefer first-and-goal from the 10, after a false-start flag, to first-and-goal from the 5. He said it’s to have more field to operate within, but reader John Busacca suggests McFarland should then advise a 10-yard intentional holding penalty.

Even on Thanksgiving, leave it to TV and NFL “pros” to turn our stomachs. At the close of the Bills over Cowboys, CBS first cut to a Bills player on the sideline mocking Dallas QB Dak Prescott to Dallas fans, then to a slow-motion replay of two Bills mocking Ezekiel Elliott. CBS couldn’t even take Thanksgiving off from rewarding the classless.

The inevitable finally happened. I seldom support violence as a solution, but last week in a supermarket in Howell, N.J., two women brawled after one complained that the other had more than 10 items while in the express checkout line. One was arrested. I hope she was the one who had more than 10 items.

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