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Sunday, December 30, 2001

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Jack Lambert suggested they put quarterbacks in skirts. That was 20 years ago, when the NFL began cracking down on late hits to quarterbacks. Now, with the way the new taunting rules are being enforced, Wayne Gandy suggests they should outfit all players in tuxedos.

"This is football, not some choir where you get dressed up and put on a tux," said Gandy, the Steelers' left tackle.

Gandy and Hines Ward, who has been fined $15,000 for two taunting penalties this season, complained that opponents can't even talk to each other anymore on the field without getting a penalty and a hefty fine.

The days of trash-talking are coming to an end.

"I think there's taunting and then competitive chatter," Gandy said. "The one Kordell had, he didn't even say a word. It was more a stare. A lot of times it's between people who know each other, that's what a lot of people don't understand. They're buddies."

Quarterback Kordell Stewart said he was fined $5,000 by the league for his penalty against Jacksonville and he is appealing it.

Thus, the Steelers have three of the 51 taunting fines issued by the league this season. But if they don't like it, they should complain not to the league but to their union. Representatives from the NFL Players Association are the ones who urged the NFL to try to curb the unsportsmanlike conduct in the league.

"They expressed concern to us about sportsmanship and their concern for things going on the field that they wanted to get cleaned up," said Gene Washington, the NFL's director of football operations who hands out fines.

The league complied and the crackdown on taunting began. It has resulted in ticky-tack penalties such as the one against Ward Dec. 16 in Baltimore and what happened to Stewart Nov. 18 against Jacksonville. Neither said much, but officials deemed their actions taunting nevertheless. Ward was fined $10,000 because it was his second taunting foul after he stood over a prone Earl Little of the Browns Nov. 11. Coach Bill Cowher admonished Ward for standing over Little after knocking him out and Ward apologized, but the Steelers' wide receiver said the officials apologized to him for calling a penalty when he barely said anything to Rod Woodson in Baltimore.

"It's just amazing," Ward said. "I didn't say nothing, I said 'Rod, are you trying to hurt me?' I swear to God, that's what I said. Elvis Grbac threw the ball in someone's face the next series and he didn't get fined. Rod got a personal foul and didn't get fined. I don't know, I guess it's new to the league to see a receiver going against defensive backs, so it seems like I'm getting singled out."

Washington said that it's not so much what you say as what you do. When it comes to dishing out fines, he can't hear what a player says so he goes by their body language.

Their body language?

"If I see on video tape a player standing over a player, I can't tell what he's saying," Washington said. "He could be saying 'You're the best player in world,' but if his head is bent down that's not likely. We can't hear it on video tape. People talk all the time. But there's body language you can see."

The league has virtually eliminated fighting by issuing hefty fines and Washington said it hopes to accomplish the same thing with taunting.

"Taunting can lead to fights," Washington said. "That's the primary reason we're so tough on taunting. If not, the next thing you have is a brawl."

But if the league virtually eliminated fights without strictly enforcing taunting rules in the past, what's the purpose now?

"Well," Washington said, "fighting virtually disappeared but pushing and shoving still exists.

"It's about the whole sportsmanship issue, taunting just being part of it. They didn't like the way the game was being perceived. It was really a joint effort in the whole sportsmanship area."

Pushing and shoving in football? Hard to believe. What's also hard to believe is that the NFL fines players for talking to each other on the field but not for not trying on the field, as Randy Moss says he sometimes does not do.

"This is football," Gandy complained. "I don't know what they expect us to do."

And the Steelers are the cleanest of bunch. Their three taunting penalties totaled $20,000. And guard Alan Faneca said he was fined $7,500 for clipping against the Chiefs -- "I just dusted his heels; it's under appeal," Faneca said. Those are the only fines levied on the Steelers this season.

"This is a team that has gone through the whole year with basically a clean slate," Washington said.

Consider that a compliment, not a taunt.