Oklahoma State’s Markel Brown Ejected After Dunk-of-the-Year on Missouri

Vince Lombardi: “After you score a touchdown, act like you’ve been there before.”

This day and age, sports players like to showboat. It’s tough. The adrenaline is pumping, the crowd is cheering and your big play in a game may be immortalized by film, forever.

In the heat of the big moment of a game, it is a natural part of human nature to want to celebrate. But how far is too far? Markel Brown learned that in the NCAA, staring down a player after an amazing dunk will get you ejected.

Personally, I think a part of sporting IS the emotion and passion. Who really wants to watch Tim Duncan and the 1990s era San Antonia Spurs show up to every game. Sportsmanship is great, but an excessive amount of pure play is patently boring. It’s no better than playing a 1989 version of Michael Jordan versus Magic Johnson on a nascent Nintendo entertainment system. The play is predictable, entertaining for 10 minutes and only fun in a nostalgic look. Ahhh, that’s how it used to be.

While coaches should be the enforcers of what’s too far for their players, keeping a mode of decorum, we have to make sure we are not making the game too boring for fans.