Titans owner throwing the Bird

[Phishfan]

^^^ My understanding was he was flipping off the Bills, not people in the stands.

[MaineDolFan]

As far as the fans are concerned, wouldn't that be the same thing?  Fans pay to see their team, their guys.  Owner flips off those guys.  That is just as non-excusable, in my opinion.

I know people that still think Pete Carrol should have been fined / suspended for making the choke signal at the Dolphins bench when he was coaching the Jets. 

Some things, as a professional, you just don't do. 

You and I couldn't get away with that in the real world.  We would be fired or punched.  He shouldn't get away with it either.

Bravo to the NFL for not taking that laying down.

[Sunstroke]

Can I get a little clarification here? The subject title makes part of my brain ache every time I look at it<g>. Does anyone "throw" a bird? I know you can flip the bird, and I know you can give someone the bird...but "throwing the bird?"

With my humble apologies for the breakout of OCD (Obsessive Cliche' Disorder)

You and I couldn't get away with that in the real world.  We would be fired or punched.  He shouldn't get away with it either.

If you owned your own company (keeping apples with apples here...Bud Adams isn't the towel boy) and you walked into the break room or out onto the factory floor and flipped the bird at some of your employees, you don't think you would get away with it? Seriously?

I've seen business owners do a HELL of a lot worse without any repercussions whatsoever...and think the NFL is ridiculously overpenalizing this situation.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

I've seen business owners do a HELL of a lot worse without any repercussions whatsoever...and think the NFL is ridiculously overpenalizing this situation.

What was the name of that guy you worked for that ran into some trouble with some Native American tribes and threw a champagne bottle across the conference room?

[fyo]

Can I get a little clarification here? The subject title makes part of my brain ache every time I look at it<g>. Does anyone "throw" a bird? I know you can flip the bird, and I know you can give someone the bird...but "throwing the bird?"

"throwing the bird" returns 1,090,000 hits on google.
"flipping the bird" returns 658,000.

Not saying that's definitive proof of anything -- and there could be a million throwers of actual-real-birds out there for all I know.

There does seem to be a preponderance of "real" birds involved in the first 10 hits... except...

Funny thing, the top hit on "throwing the bird" is a message board discussion of THIS EXACT event (and the same exact youtube vid), but not this message board. The message is dated yesterday (i.e. AFTER mine), so maybe my phrasing was stolen...

http://www.volnation.com/forum/nfl-football/86299-old-bud-adams-throwing-bird-after.html

(or, more likely, a lot of people use "throwing the bird").

[Phishfan]

I also have never heard of "throwing the bird". I have flashed the bird, given the bird, & flipped the bird though.

[Dave Gray]

If you owned your own company (keeping apples with apples here...Bud Adams isn't the towel boy) and you walked into the break room or out onto the factory floor and flipped the bird at some of your employees, you don't think you would get away with it? Seriously

Not exactly apples to apples, either.  Bud Adams is an owner of a franchise, within the umbrella of the NFL.  If you owned a McDonalds and publicly flipped off or otherwise improperly treated employees of another store, I think you could expect some kind of review from the corporate office.

[MaineDolFan]

If you owned your own company (keeping apples with apples here...Bud Adams isn't the towel boy) and you walked into the break room or out onto the factory floor and flipped the bird at some of your employees, you don't think you would get away with it? Seriously?

I've seen business owners do a HELL of a lot worse without any repercussions whatsoever...and think the NFL is ridiculously overpenalizing this situation.

1:  Bills players are not Adam's employees.
2:  The fans are not Adam's employees.

[Sunstroke]

What was the name of that guy you worked for that ran into some trouble with some Native American tribes and threw a champagne bottle across the conference room?

That would be former Rams and Redskins D-lineman Bruce Anderson, and technically, he threw the bottle of chapagne "through" the break room wall while CEO of Paramount Plastics.

"throwing the bird" returns 1,090,000 hits on google.
"flipping the bird" returns 658,000.

Not saying that's definitive proof of anything -- and there could be a million throwers of actual-real-birds out there for all I know.

Good visual there...it was a coffee-snorter. 

I guess having lived in so many different places in the USA, and dealt with US soldiers from all different areas of the country for 6 years that made me think that. I just had never heard the term "throwing a bird" used before. It just threw/flipped me for a loop.

[JVides]

I gotta say, an 86 year old man flipping the bird with such vigor and gusto is just plain funny.  Fining him a penny more that what the league fined Bryan Cox back in 199-whenever-that-was (adjusted for inflaction) is obscene, especially because, as I remember it, he flipped off Bills fans, too.

Come to think of it, wouldn't this repeat flipping by two different guys make the flippers the variable and the Bills fans the constant?  Maybe Bills fans are the problem!

[Sunstroke]

1:  Bills players are not Adam's employees.
2:  The fans are not Adam's employees.

In all fairness, it was you who used the term "be fired," so my clarification on employee vs owner seems reasonable. As far as flipping off random strangers, which seems to be the most viable comparison to the direction you just spun things, I could walk out in front of a group of strangers any day of the week, step up on a podium, flip off the entire crowd, and I wouldn't get fired OR punched. After all, it wasn't like Adams leaned out the window, picked out a fan and said "hey you in the Bills ski cap with the cheesy moustache...fuck you very much!" and then flipped him the bird. It was a general "this is what I think of your reaction to my team" flippage of the birds.

And to reiterate my point...I still feel that the fine was both excessive and ridiculous, given the nature of Bud Adams' offense.

Come to think of it, wouldn't this repeat flipping by two different guys make the flippers the variable and the Bills fans the constant?  Maybe Bills fans are the problem!

Sold!!  Split the fine between Bud Adams, for flipping the birds, and the Bills, for being bird magnets.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

That would be former Rams and Redskins D-lineman Bruce Anderson, and technically, he threw the bottle of chapagne "through" the break room wall while CEO of Paramount Plastics.

Yeah, I remember you telling us about him.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he have the bottle of champagne in his hand, called all of you in the break room and said, "I bought this bottle of champange to celebrate this contract with <forgot the name of the company>  But..... WE...... DIDN'T..... GET........ THE........ FUCKING.......... CONTRACT!!!!!!!"

And the champagne bottle went flying.