Monday, November 29, 2010

Johnson verson Finnegan: Upstanding Player beats down Dirty Player

For those who didn't get to see or may have seen and were confussed by the fighting that broke out in the middle of the Tennesse Titans-Houston Titans game yesterday, here is the basics of what happened: Titans Cornerback (CB) Cortland Finnegan was constantly in Texans Wide Receiver (WR) Andre Johnson's face during the game. Despite Johnson telling Finnegan to cut it out, the grabbing and the shoving continued. In the fourth quarter, Johnson had had enough. After easily removing Finnegan's helmet, Johnson proceeded to land a couple solid haymakers to Finnegan's scull. After the scuffle between both teams was quieted by the officiating crew, both players were ejected from the game. (See video below)



Finnegan is an antagonizer and was voted one of the dirtiest players in the NFL by other players. In fact, Finnegan said he "aspires to be the NFL's dirtiest player". Listed at 5'-10" and 185 lbs., Finnegan basically is a punk in an athletes body who uses his "dirty" tactics to get under the skin of other teams' best players.

On the other hand, Johnson is a well respected player around the NFL and is considered one of the top Wide Receivers in the game. Standing at 6'3" and weighing in at 225 lbs., Johnson is ALOT bigger and stronger then Finnegan.

This may be the first time a player from an opposing team actually went after Finnegan so agressively during a game. In fact, I say "Kudos" to Johnson for attempting to teach Finnegan a lesson. Everyone has their limits and even good guys can be pushed too far. Whether Finnegan wants to admit it or not, being punched a few times by someone who out weighs him by almost 40 lbs. has to hurt. Especially when the athlete is a guy like Johnson who is one of the strongest Wide Receivers in the NFL.

I know the league will probably fine Johnson and may choose to suspend him, but I think a suspention is too much. Johnson has appologizes for his actions and he has no history in the NFL of bad behavior. On the other hand, Finnegan has been fined on a few different occasions for his bad behavior on the field. Johnson was in a Catch-22: if he didn't go after Finnegan, who knows what would have happened to him if things escalated even more but going after Finnegan ment being thrown out of the game.

The situation is similar to the kid in High School who knows of a punk who has the reputation of agitating and picking on people. The kid tries to put up with the punk and not let him get to him, but one day the punk goes too fast and the kid says to himself "Enough is Enough" and puts the punk in his place. The kid gets a detention for doing what he did on school grounds while the antagonizing punk gets suspended for pushing the other kid too far and factoring in his history of bad behavior.

So congrats to Johnson for being a stand up guy after the game for appologizing after the game but I also say good for him for taking it to Finnegan. Maybe he should have been more controlled but in the momment Johnson did what he thought had to be done. It's fair to say that if Johnson wasn't in the NFL though he would be fighting one of the Klitschko Brothers for Boxing's Heavyweight Championship. Those punches definately were not sissy shots for sure!

1 comment:

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