The NFL Is Watching

Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco was fined $20,000 for attempting to ‘bribe’ a replay official last weekend. Ochocino busted out a dollar bill while the officials were reviewing if he had his feet in bounds against Baltimore.

The NFL ran through a bunch of reasons why they hit him with the fine, including a violation of the uniform code, bribery, etc.

I get that the league needs to make sure that things don’t get out of control. I understand that they need to make sure that guerrilla marketing campaigns like the Captain Morgan (see Eagles tight end Brent Celek) don’t go viral and ruin every touchdown. Also, just to be clear, that ‘Captain’ pose was about the lamest, cheesiest, least clever end zone celebration ever.

I have no problem with them squashing the throat slashing gesture. I think they are on the right track when they kill choreographed antics in the end zone.

But how about a little wiggle room with things that are, I don’t know, unique and clever? Ideas that are actually funny?

Seriously, NFL? Really?

I am not an Ochocinco guy, but that was funny. I think the guy spends way too much time on his routines and is downright toxic when the team is going poorly. His tweets to ‘Barack’ are stupid. Most of the stunts he has pulled have been stupid. But not this one. This was good. Credit where credit is due.

Ochocinco is certainly an attention whore, and clearly someone did not hug him enough when he was a child, but this was good!

It was a $1!

I don’t think anyone was sitting at home on their couch and worried about the integrity of the league. This was not how Tim Donaghy got started. The simple fact that it was $1 made it funny. Not even Raider fans thought that was serious bribery attempt.

I don’t understand why there has to be a zero tolerance approach on stuff like this. If it’s funny, and everyone knows it is a joke, what’s the harm? Is the league afraid it is going to spark an epidemic of players offering $1 bribes to officials? Turn these guys loose.

If another player has a better bit than offering $1 bribes, then let’s see it.

I know you are running a billion dollar business and that it needs to be serious. But would having a small sense of humor bring the league to it’s knees? I doubt it.

Lighten up.

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