In an astonishing feat of hypocrisy, a Muslim NFL player has been penalized for kneeling and touching his forehead to the ground after a touchdown. “Unsportsmanlike conduct,” the officials say — were they afraid that he was going to unleash the terrible power of Allah against the other team?
But of course Tim Tebow could engage in even more blatant acts of conspicuous piety with no sanctions, other than that people laughed at him. I guess It’s OK If You Are Christian. In a secular country, we wouldn’t give a damn what magic rituals athletes personally invoke, much less discriminate against one myth and promote another.
It’s also rather sanctimoniously hypocritical for the Christians backing football to be sending out people to risk traumatic injury and chronic brain damage for the glory of wealthy team owners.
He should just have engaged in the officially approved NFL customs of beating his wife and children.
In fairness, it wasn’t that it was a Muslim gesture that resulted in the penalty- it was the fact that the rules state that you may not “go to the ground” in the process of celebrating. The purpose of the rule is to cut down on game-stalling celebrations, and there are a lot of tiny little rules governing the process of celebrating in the NFL.
I think this tweet i saw pretty much sums it up
“there are a lot of tiny little rules governing the process of celebrating in the NFL….”
There certainly are. And here’s the opinion of NFL Vice President of Football Communications Michael Signora:
https://twitter.com/NFLfootballinfo/status/516942894318383104
Michael SignoraVerified account
@NFLfootballinfo
So the real story is, it’s OK to celebrate but only if you’re religious…
I really don’t think the refs give a crap about the method of prayer employed by the player. Most Christians are so woefully uneducated about other religions that they wouldn’t recognize a Muslim praying, from Adam. The penalty was called because he dropped and slid on his knees before muttering to himself about Allah.
This may or may not somehow have been related to the player being a Muslim, but it would be darned hard to tell from the celebration what kind of religion he practices, or even if it was meant to be religious (at least from the GIF of it I saw over at Friendly Atheist, maybe there was more to it). The NFL’s celebration rules are petty, absurd, and capricious, enforced apparently at whim. Meanwhile, the fans like them, they do little to slow the pace of games (except Chad Johnson/Ochocinco), and certainly don’t delay the game as much as…. well, everything else about football, particularly the commercials. Must be that the celebrations delay the cut to commercial…
But yes, shut the whole thing down. Enough celebration of violence and destruction of brains from a tax free organization.
This is perfectly normal in European football (not the American kind) competitions.
Also how ironic that the rule is there to prevent the slowing down of the game. A game which is stopped every 30 seconds anyway.
I wonder if that was a spontaneous little prayer performed in the joy of the moment, or a well thought out routine designed by a player keen to let everyone know that he is holy and the rest of us are not?
For once I’d love to see a football player point to himself after scoring a touchdown.
@Trav Mamone, #9: Pretty sure I’ve seen plenty of that.
Touchdowns should only be celebrated with monocles, cigars, and brandy. “Good show, old chap, nice six points.”
Thankfully the NFL is now saying that Abdullah should not have been penalized:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/277572721.html
maybe i should start doing idiotic celebratory dances every time i do my job…
hell, yeah!!! I ran this ledger report, right here!!! woo!!!
Trav@9:
I’m guessing you don’t watch much football, because self-congratulatory touchdown celebrations are at least as common as religious ones. In fact, the quarterback for the team in San Francisco has managed to combine the two by conveniently tattooing praying hands on one bicep and “Glory to God” on the other, then flexing his muscles as he plants big ol’ smooches on his sweaty arms whenever he scores.
pianoman@13:
I believe it is more customary to seek out the nearest male, slap him in the nuts and shout “Good game!”
I’ve been waiting for a long time to see a player act like getting to the end zone is his job. Even if they hammed it up in celebration.
Examples:
1 [non-porcine] Long play goes for TD, no one nearby. Player stops on/just before goal line, extends arm to obviously break plane. Walks over to official, hands ball over as if the player has been to the end zone before and gets paid to do it again.
2 [porcine] Exciting play, long or not, goes for TD. Player gets rid of ball, then as teammates approach mocks buttoning up a suit and engages in a parody of a formal handshake.
===============
Of course I’ll likely never see anything like that since I don’t watch the game much at all anymore. I still find chaotic beauty in the unexpected moments of amazing athleticism that occur during handegg games, but there is so much that turns me off about the culture and the game.
@16 CD, hate to quote a racist pig, but I believe it was Bear Bryant who instructed his running backs and wide receivers, upon scoring a touchdown: “act like ya been there before, son”. I’m not sure if he still holds the career record for touchdowns, but Jerry Rice used to do just as your example 1 suggests, hand the ball to the ref. I can’t remember him spiking it even at the end of close games.
Then there’s Randy Moss rubbing his asscrack against the other team’s goalpost — that was totally legal…..but I bet if the padding had read “Jesus Saves” he would have been expelled from the league.
No establishment of religion in the US? Sure, we’ll believe you…
That’s because there are so few goals scored in soccer the teams could send out for pizza after every one and it still wouldn’t make much difference.
;-)
anbheal@17:
I couldn’t resist looking it up. He was far from a showboater, but was not above a little self-love after a TD. I know Barry Sanders had a reputation for the spartan TD celebrations.
Jerry Rice scored lots of touchdowns and didn’t celebrate, as I recall. He just handed the ball to the nearest ref. After all, he was just doing his job. I honestly haven’t watched a game in about three or four years now, however, so I don’t know if anyone now plays the way he did. The increasing hypocrisy associated with so many levels of the institution finally left me with a total lack of interest. Everything from the fabulously wealthy owners wringing city tax payers for new stadiums to the willful ignorance regarding brain trauma. College football is no more attractive these days–for every decent football player-student in my classes, there are three or four who exhibit the worst of the stereotypes.
Crip Dyke @ 16,
For pure, unadulterated athletic mayhem and chaos, nothing beats rugby (though a clean hockey game ain’t bad either).
Handegg… heh, I’ve been calling it pointyball for ages. I’m waiting for that other football to finally take off in popularity here, but I’m not holding my breath…
On a side note, this player is a defensive player. His job is typically to keep the ball out of the end zone.
Well…that may be the justification (read: excuse) used for the rule. I do think it was more about trying to keep the game more professional* than it had been.
* Yes, yes, that’s also a strange way to describe a game that involves people smashing their heads into each other.
What’s a Muslim doing touching a pigskin?
*cough*Tebow*cough*
–
Can’t sympathize with you on this one. In one post you rail against orthodox Jews refusing to sit next to a woman and then defend a Muslim football player touching his head to the ground in the next. I see no harm in touching one’s head to the ground and I do see harm in refusing to sit next to a woman. But you’re either for religion or against it. Is this because you folks here at FtB believe Muslims are “brown” and must therefore be defended? This is hypocrisy.
I, for one, was glad the penalty was called. First of all, as others have said, the action that resulted in the penalty was the sliding to the ground, not the prayer. I believe the player himself acknowledged that when asked later. If the penalty hadn’t been called I would have been more concerned because a ref would have violated the rules for the sake of political correctness.
The problem addressed by the rule is to prevent overt acts of celebration that would result in a delay of game. If anyone was watching football in the 70’s and 80’s, you know what is meant by celebrations that can cause a delay . . . some of them were ridiculous.
If the player wants to pray, fine . . . but when you do it in a manner that violates the rules, you get to pay the price and get hit with a penalty.
I do have to question anyone who knee jerks a reaction and trying to bring the religion into the mix. I believe Tim Tebow was called for quite a few for the same reason. The fact that is wasn’t his religion, but the action of going to the ground that drew the fouls. And yes, back in 2010 and 11 there were people whining that refs were prejudiced against Tebow because he was praying . . . nice to see it can work correctly.
@tsig:
never thought about that. “good catch”!!
(get it?)
Bingo!
False dichotomy is false.
Actually, that doesn’t follow, but the premise is false anyway.
Context, chimera, context. We’re not defending anyone, just saying that if a player of one religion is allowed to pray in the endzone, they have to allow players of any religion to do the same. The only hypocrisy is on the part of the NFL. Just about everyone here would rather NO ONE did their little song and dance for their imaginary friend.
Ted: “If the player wants to pray, fine . . . but when you do it in a manner that violates the rules”
And if the rules are written to allow one prayer but not others…..?
@27 Chimera
Are you channeling Sam Harris? What a bizarre rationalization. I think the defense here is that a moment prayer that impacts no one else should be an acceptable part of secular society, no matter how stupid a humanist/atheist might think it is. I think the game of baseball is stupid but I would never insist it be shut down. On the other hand, refusing to sit next to a women is offensive and discriminatory. This does impact others and sets a nasty tone in society. You don’t have religious freedom to do that. It is a practice that should be shunned, ostracized and outlawed for its indecency. I feel the same way about boxing.
To think there is an equivalency between the two is the most un-nuanced position I’ve heard in days.
While atheists are aware that atheism is not a religion, it is often treated as one for legal and social purposes–that is, non-belief is protected under the Constitution and under various laws and customs allowing for expressions of religious belief.
In a nation where one religion is dominant, this sometimes means that atheists are often at common-cause with minority religions, simply because protecting their rights also means ensuring our own, despite the real philosophical differences we possess.
And if you think FtB somehow doesn’t go after Muslims, then you apparently are utterly ignorant
of Heinous Dealings and Butterflies & Wheels, to name two of the blogs that are quite willing to critique Islam on a regular basis, or of A Million Gods, which goes after Hinduism, which is also a religion practiced by ‘brown’ people, to use your odious and race-baiting phrasing.Realized that paragraph had a point where it could be stopped a bit earlier, so I just struck some of it out.
Why be against religion? Why care what other people believe?
Because it does harm.
If it does no harm there is no justification to being opposed to it, or interfering with other people’s personal choices.
As PZ made clear in that post, if they had kept that refusal private by buying a second seat, or buying a block of seats as a group and sitting next to each other, it would not be a problem. The problem was how they interfered with others’ comfort and safety by insisting that other people accommodate them.
If you keep your offensive beliefs private, you are free to have them.
Despite the name, “pigskins” are made from cows
chimera@27:
Actually, I think you’d be incredibly fucking surprised to learn that a lot of atheists are interested in this little thing called freedom of religion. I can almost guarantee that if a Christian player was carded or otherwise punished for signing the cross after a goal at a football match in the Middle East, PZ’s Arabic doppelganger would probably blog about it. If NFL players are allowed to let their Jesus freak flag fly without flags flying, then Muslim players should be allowed their pointless celebrations too.
But to hear the fundies tell it, Tebow was the most persecuted player in history. Sure, he was given a starting job that he didn’t earn, sure he performed significantly worse than the guy he replaced, but people laughed at him. How can you not recognize such blatant victimization?
Amphiox:
Actually, I would say it’s not even a case of keeping them private, it’s simply a case of catering to them or expressing them in a manner that doesn’t interfere with other people’s ability to go about their own business, ignoring you in the process – such as failing to cause disruption and delay on a flight by demanding others swap their seats around to cater for your beliefs and then, when some say ‘no’, blocking the aisles and refusing to sit down as there happens to be a person equipped with one of those icky vagina things in the next seat.
To get back to the OP, however, it really depends on the exact context – if, as some have said, he broke a rule about ‘going to ground’, and it was that he was penalised for, not any religious component of his celebration, then he was rightfully penalised – there should be no exception to the rules just because it was a religious act. On the other hand, if there is no such rule, or there have been other celebrations that have gone unpenalised, despite breaking the same rule, then, yes, he was penalised unjustly – the rule should be applied fairly to all or not at all.
Or inoffensively public. If Tim Tebow demands the NFL indulge a 5 minute prayer meeting after every score, flag the fucker. But if he wants to drop to a knee for a second and pretend god gives a shit that his team scored a touchdown, more power to him.
Playing at the highest level possible as consistently as possible through an entire game is a player’s job.
Keeping mentally focused and motivated through the physical and emotional ups and downs of a game is a part of that and thus also a player’s job.
Being a part of a team who contributes to the team as a whole performing the best it can is also a player’s job.
Every player and team (being groups of players) respond in different ways.
If celebrating after touchdowns enhances motivation and morale for that particular player such that he plays better if he celebrates than he does when he doesn’t, then celebrating IS part of the player’s job.
If celebrating after touchdowns enhances moral and cohesiveness such that the team plays better when that particular player celebrates than when he doesn’t, then celebrating is part of that particular player’s job.
The US of A is just batshit crazy. (And batshit wicked. Which might qualify as an pleonasm.)
an, read a
Yeah he violated the rules. That it seems the rule was applied selectively is offensive.
Sport-by-sport breakdown:
In the NFL, you can celebrate a score up to a point, then you get penalized.
In the MLB, celebrating is against those bullshit “unwritten rules” teams like the Braves like to point to as proof nobody else is “playing the game the right way.”
In the NBA, nobody really has time to celebrate, unless you just hit the buzzer-beating winning shot.
In soccer/football, everybody celebrates like they just won the lottery.
And in the NHL, league officials were actually promoting the idea of players coming up with “signature celebrations” to give the casual fans something to latch on to.
The NHL is also the whitest of the leagues mentioned above. Not a coincidence, I would say.
@Alverant
But they are not, are they? Tim Tebow drew delay of game penalties as did the Muslim player. The rule isn’t against praying, it’s dropping to the ground after a touchdown. If I remember Tebow did most of his kneeling off the field of play and on the sidelines, especially after he got penalized a couple of times.
re: going to ground
I propose the more sensible rule of “okay, you have twenty seconds to celebrate after a touchdown. No more”
Ted@46:
You aren’t penalized for a delay of game for celebrating touchdowns, so unless he decided to spend his allotted 40 seconds on the play clock leading the huddle in prayer, I think you pulled this one out of your rear.
Ted@46 (again)
Pro Football Reference shows that Tebow was penalized 10 times in his career, all delay of game penalties because he failed to snap the ball in time. They had fuck all to do with praying.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/TeboTi00/penalties/
“How about if we just shut down the NFL?”
NOOOOOO… then all I’ll have is beer and pizza…
*… beer, pizza and… tennis?* *… beer, pizza and… NASCAR?* *beer, pizza and… uhhh…*
@50:
beer, pizza and Pharyngula?
Crip Dyke #16:
For amazing athleticism in a handegg game, might I suggest Australian Rules Football? The culture is not flawless, but it’s a vast improvement on many other codes.
A famous tagline for the code is “see the big men fly” and they do. It’s also a true running game – the only time the action stops for a few seconds is when a player takes a ‘mark’ and is awarded a free kick as a result (a mark is catching a kicked ball, often by springing off the back/shoulders of a contesting player to get extra height for the catch (that type of mark is called a ‘specky’ ie spectacular)).
The song for this advertisement for Aussie Rules was a Top 10 pop music hit in 1979. The big men fly even higher these days.
http://youtu.be/pxM8XB61ZvU
chimera @27:
In one post, PZ criticized an Orthodox Jew who refused to sit next to a woman on a plane (which you agree is wrong).
In this post, PZ says he doesn’t see anything wrong with a harmless gesture made by a Muslim football player to an invisible sky daddy (which you say you don’t see a problem with either).
PZ isn’t being hypocritical in saying that he has no problem with harmless religious gestures, but is against those that contribute to discrimination or cause harm.
Most of the bloggers at FtB that I’ve read recognize that Muslims are not of the same ethnicity (they realize they are NOT “all brown”). It’s bigots like Sam Harris that think all Muslims look alike and are all the same ethnicity.
As for your “you’re either for or against religion”, there are religious views that people have that, while stupid, do not oppress others or cause harm to anyone. Then there are religious views that *do* oppress others or cause harm. If someone has a harmless religious belief (like praying to a god after a touchdown), some of us shake our heads and think “Well that’s silly, but oh well”. If someone has a harmFUL religious belief (like discriminating against women), some of us will condemn those beliefs.
Also, why do you think there’s some official party line at FtB about Muslims?
It seems if the purpose of the rule is to prevent delays, they’d make the rule have to do with how long it takes you to get back in position (or off the field). If you can lay on the ground, get back up and run back to the line before the rest of your team, go right ahead. Don’t see how that necessarily takes longer than other forms of prancing around
This has all been spelled out elsewhere. He was penalized for for sliding to the ground which is against the rules. When he came off the field his coach even told him, “You can’t slide.” But, this being America, religious privilege wins out, and a league spokesman said, “However, the officiating mechanic in this situation is not to flag a player who goes to the ground as part of religious expression…”
@5Up Mushroom(#5)
Your argument doesn’t quite fly. There isn’t any question of the prayer being recognized as Muslim. It is already known that Abdullah is Muslim. Therefore any prayer he does is clearly a Muslim one. And I’m pretty sure Tebow also “went to the ground” a few times.
While I wouldn’t mind shutting down the NFL this incident is not a good reason:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/ronnie-hastie-flagged_n_790342.html
@chimera, #27:
You’re either for harm or against it, you hypocrite.
@mnb0, #57:
Is the gross entanglement of sexism and football culture a better one?
the name you are looking for here is MLS. Also you get carded for taking your jersey off during a celebration. which is BS. [/sportsball opinions]
Crip Dyke#59
I was going to make a remark to that effect as well; shutting down the whole NFL because of one irregular call would be a huge overreaction. Shutting down the NFL because they support and shield rapists, domestic abusers, and regular committers of other crimes of violence/endangerment, now that’s a solid reason to shut their asses down.
27, Chimera:
That is some incoherent bullshit you’re spouting. Even putting aside how you’re claiming that some sort of position with any sort of nuance is hypocritical, this case isn’t even about the religion itself. One can oppose Islam and still have an issue with an organization cracking down on a muslim praying in celebration. Sure, if it actually was due to enforcing an existing rule entirely there wouldn’t necessarily be an issue (though rules that just so happen to effect certain population segments are often dubious as hell), but Tebow has demonstrated pretty damn thoroughly that this is one selectively enforced rule.