There’s no more room for trash-talking athletes’ garbage

While the sports world was busy trashing the trash talking of hockey’s Sean Avery this week, there was something more compelling to note beyond his potty mouth: The muzzling of trash talking.

Or maybe it’s what in this Jerry Springer world constitutes an attempt for “clean trash talking,” a sporting oxymoron along the lines of “fun run” and “draft expert.” There’s a line being drawn out there, somewhere, and it began before Avery’s tasteless comments regarding a former girlfriend dating an opponent. The week before, for instance, the NFL fined the Dolphins’ Channing Crowder and Joey Porter for in-game bile directed at the New England Patriots.

Crowder and Porter went over the NFL-drawn line by spewing racial venom and attacking an opponent’s family, according to sources. The specifics? Well, they were listed by two sources and won’t make the family newspaper.

Channel Avery’s poison toward race and an opposing family member and you’ve got the general idea of the Dolphins’ riffs. It’s telling that veteran Dolphins such as Vonnie Holliday, Yeremiah Bell and Jason Ferguson were critical of their two teammates’ comments.

Look how seriously the league is taking this, too. Patriot tackle Matt Light punched a helmetless Crowder several times in the head, even grabbing Crowder’s hair to hold him. But Light’s fists were fined the same $15,000 as Crowder’s words (Porter got fined $7,500).

It goes back to the summer when teams received a memo from the league that reads like a football version of George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words.

“When it comes to comments on the field or anywhere in the work place by players or coaches or others that cross racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation or are personal attacks or comments about personal families members’ mental, emotional or substance abuse addictions -- those are subjects you should stay away from,” said Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations.

Whew. Is anything open for comment anymore?

“You can say, ‘Your momma wears army boots,’ but you can’t say, ‘Your momma’s a crackhead drug addict walking the streets,’ ” Anderson said. “There’s a difference. We’re not going to condone the trash taking in those categories.”

Legislating taste is always difficult in society. But finding taste on the field is the problem, too. Long gone are the days when trash talking consisted of Dallas linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson saying Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw, “couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the ‘c’ and the ‘a.’ ” That was creative. People also laughed when Shannon Sharpe, the Denver tight end turned TV analyst, told of coming to the line of scrimmage and calling out the phone number of an opponent’s girlfriend. Just to play with his opponent’s head.

“We believe those players who like to can still talk appropriate trash,” Anderson said. “Some players think that’s part of their game.” Take Porter. He researches opponents to get in their heads with comments, according to teammates. He also goes too far. He was fined $10,000 last year for calling Cleveland tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. a homosexual slur in an interview.

That’s one difference with these recent fines. That Winslow comment was public, just as Avery’s comments were. Avery, who was suspended for six games by the NHL, even called over media so his words would get a good ride.

What’s new is Porter and Crowder being fined on the field. Taunting, Anderson said, has been fined for a while. But now there’s an amplified list of verbal trash.

The rich irony shouldn’t be lost that Porter is not talking to the media anymore (Crowder has refused to discuss his on-field comments). Nor, last Sunday, did Porter talk to St. Louis tackle Orlando Pace.

“Not that I heard anyhow,” Pace said.

Porter, too, had a quiet game on the field with no sacks for one of the few times this year. Is there a connection for a guy whose game is built on emotion?

Perhaps the best way to answer trash talk is how Robert Horry, the multiringed NBA forward did. When a player once got in his face in a series, and kept getting into it, Horry was silent. The player became frustrated at getting no response and finally asked Horry.

“I just play,” Horry said.

A little talk is spice to the game. But its clearly gone overboard when even teammates are critical of it as in the case of Avery and the Dolphins. Take Horry’s counsel: Just play.