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Published: August 27, 2008 09:14 am    print this story   email this story  

Too soon to joke about that

By Charles Curcio, Sports Editor

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Anyone that knows me knows that there is nothing I like better then a good laugh.

It doesn’t matter whether the joke is from a great standup comic or just the usual banter of the office.

In the sports world, we have plenty of things that people can make jokes about.

Brett Farve and his on-again, off-again, then on-again dealings with the Packers before his trade to the Jets.

The comedy of sports rivalries that garner such “hatred” between the two groups, my favorite of which was the late Lewis Grizzard’s story of a Florida-Georgia married couple where the winner had to kiss the loser’s bare bottom in public.

The old joke about the guy sitting in the back row of the football stadium and standing up when a funeral passed by outside because he had been married to that woman 40 years.

However, there is one topic that not even Leno or Letterman could make funny to me: Michael Vick.

I even hate to put his name in print because it’s such a waste of our precious ink.

However, I feel that using his name as a joke or punchline is not funny at all.

The reason I mention him is that his name was used at Friday night’s Albemarle - East Montgomery game.

The breakaway banner that the team runs through is a long-standing fun tradition.

It’s a way of getting a very clear message across to the other team’s fans that your team is here and ready to rumble.

It’s not meant to be offensive, generally, but used to talk a little smack to the other team.

As someone that has played “they’re coming to take me away, ha ha ho ho hee hee” over the PA system to opposing pitchers, I am quite aware of this sports tradition.

It’s banter, just like when we played Little League or Dixie Youth and chanted “hey batta batta swing!!” at the opposition.

However, East Montgomery’s banner read “Michael Vick Those Bulldogs.”

This is just not in very good taste. It really is stretching the boundaries of banter into an area that it does not need to venture near.

All one has to do to find something wrong with this reference to Vick is to see HBO Real Sports’ story on dogfighting and that will cure you of ever finding that funny again.

I want to be clear on this: I am not accusing anyone at East Montgomery High School of being poor sports or anything negative.

As a veteran announcer of many Pfeiffer Invitational Tournaments that saw the Montgomery County schools pitted against each other, I love the energy of a good sports rivalry.

But let’s keep the banter on a level of good taste.

Besides, that former Atlanta Falcon quarterback doesn’t deserve any more press coverage.



Contact Charles Curcio at (704) 982-2121 ext. 12 or email at charles@stanlynewspress.com.

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