Sport outlook

Elmo Wright, this is all your fault.

If you don't remember Elmo's dance, you didn't see the beginning of it all.

Wright played at the University of Houston and was first seen nationally during the 1970 bowl season. Apparently, the Kansas City Chiefs liked what they saw because by 1971 he was wearing No. 17 and playing wide receiver in Municipal Stadium.

If you never saw Wright in action, let me describe what he did. Upon catching a touchdown pass he would hold the ball aloft while high-step dancing up and down. He would finish with a hard spike into the turf. The crowd would roar because no one had ever seen the like.

It didn't take long for the imitators and copy cats to get in on the act, and Joe Horn has finally topped them all with his idiotic cell-phone act.

What is wrong with these guys? If you remember football's greats, try to picture Jim Brown or Gayle Sayers completing a touchdown run with some sappy dance. In those days and in plenty to come, the simple roar of the crowd ringing in the scorer's ears was all the adulation and admiration they needed. You see, the greats of those days had one common thread you don't see a great deal of today. They had class.

The scoring of a touchdown or the sack of a quarterback didn't require any additional gyrations. Catching a long pass or breaking up same, didn't come with all manner of self-congratulatory gesticulations.

I don't know how many times I've seen a defensive guy knock the quarterback down and do a celebration only to get knocked square on his keister by an offensive lineman on the very next play. Offensive linemen don't celebrate. They remember.

An interesting comment was made by Len Dawson to Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star.

"I guess that's today's athlete," Dawson said. "Everything is about me. You look at the end zone dances and celebrations and the cell phones in the goal posts. It's crazy. The Stuff Elmo Wright did is nothing compared to today."

I can just see Dawson firing a touchdown strike to Otis Taylor and having Taylor break into some nutty routine. Hank Stram would have gone bug-eyed on the sideline.

The closest Taylor got to a celebration in the end zone was having Mike Garrett standing there so he could jump into his arms. But things like that were reserved for Super Bowls. A touchdown was a touchdown was a touchdown. In the NFL, you usually have to score several of them to win a game. They are common as rice.

Wide receivers seem to be the most common of the look-at-me crowd. While these guys are in college, NFL scouts are charting their every move and pretty well know by the time they select them in the draft that they can catch a pass and then run with it. So, I ask, what is the surprise? They are simply doing what they are paid millions of bucks to do. Is dancing necessary? I've been writing this column for 30 years and at no time have I ever written one, called it a classic effort and danced. As it is supposed to be to the NFL player, it's a job. If people call and say, "well done," I thank them, which is what some of these prima donnas in the NFL ought to do when their teammates offer congratulations. In professional sports, what the athlete does is important to the fan only if the result at the end of the day is a bigger score on the end of the board representing your team.

But it's not only in the NFL where players go out of control if given half a chance. When Lou Holtz ruled the sideline at the University of Arkansas, there was none of that showboating with his players. Holtz said of reaching the end zone, "We like people to think we've been there before." That's a great line.

Then, there is the old coaching standby. "We like to do our celebrating after the game."

As far as the pros are concerned, players come and players go and their antics will soon be forgotten. And no one is getting paid to show up the opposition in what is supposed to be, after all, a fraternity.