Give me a freaking break

After hearing all weekend how terrible it was that Randy Moss left the field of last week's game 2 seconds (yes, seconds) early, the media was ready to jump all over him when he decided to do a tasteless end zone celebration in last nights game against the Packers. I'm not defending Moss, his celebration, and leaving the field early were both out of line, and are just little things that when added together with earlier incidents show that Moss probably isn't a very good guy. However, the level of outrage about this incident (much like the TO/Desperate Housewives intro) is just ridiculous. I'm tired of people whining about things that just don't matter. What difference does it make if Moss is a nice guy? He's paid to play football. He does that very well. You don't like what kind of person he is, fine, don't buy his jersey, don't go to Vikings games, don't watch him on TV, but for God's sake, shut the fuck up about it already.

I was listening to the game on the radio, so I didn't see what happened, and thought I would see it later on ESPN, but no...they're above showing such terrible things. However, they felt free to go on and on about how bad it was. If you're not going to show me what happened, then don't talk so much about it. If you're really above it, then be above it and ignore it. If you want to have a discussion about it, then show me what we are discussing. It didn't help me feel any better that these are the same people who were falling all over themselves to talk about what a great guy Reggie White was. So, for the record, offensive endzone celebrations are worse than being a bigot and a homophobe, and not only being one, but actively promoting bigotry and homophobia. Great job ESPN, maybe you could tell me a little bit about why OJ is great because he never had any questionable endzone celebrations.

Another thing that bothers me about this whole thing is that this is what we reserve our outrage for in this country. Hundreds of thousands of people get killed a couple of weeks ago, and it only inspires us to argue over who is charitable and who is not. We are involved in a war, with people (Americans and others) getting killed everyday, but we are largely apathetic about it. We make no demands on our government to do things right, or even to explain why the war isn't a complete waste of human life. But Randy Moss pretends to drop his pants and suddenly we're outraged and we all want to have our say. I love sports, and football in particular, as much as anyone, but there are more important things going on in the world. Who is hurt when Randy Moss celebrates? No one! Who is hurt when he leaves the field early? No one! Could we get over this? Could we talk about real things going on in the world? Actually, I'm sure that we can't, which saddens me. But, if not, could we at least stop making this seem like a big deal?

Oh, and please, please spare me the, I was watching this with my kids and now I have to explain this to them, arguement. If you don't want your kids to see anything bad, then blindfold them and lock them in a closet. And if this is the worst thing that your kids see, consider yourself lucky. Think of the terrible things kids in Asia have been seeing lately, or Iraq, or a million other fucking places in the world. If your kids saw Randy Moss pretend to drop his pants and you were bothered by that, then tell them that that kind of behavior makes people look like idiots. Tell them that you don't want to see them acting like that. Tell them whatever you want, teach them your values, they're your kids, not Randy Moss', not the NFL's, not FOX Sports'. You teach them, don't let the TV do it for you.