00:00There is a time to taunt.
00:02No matter when you choose to, though,
00:04it's a game-of-risk-reward.
00:06You can look really cool,
00:08but it can also blow up in your face.
00:10And today, I want to talk about
00:12when taunting goes bad.
00:14I sort of feel like
00:16you're about to taunt me.
00:18Yeah, are you betting that we can't kick your ass?
00:20You guys have known me long enough to know
00:22I don't have the confidence to taunt someone.
00:24Say what you want to say, man.
00:26That's why there was that big build-up.
00:28Performance reviews.
00:30This is a situation where taunting broke bad.
00:32Tyreke Stevenson,
00:34who is the one person
00:36whose hand is touching the ball
00:38right here.
00:40Y'all might have seen a clip of him,
00:42a fan in attendance to the Bears-Commanders game
00:44filmed him
00:46jawing with fans,
00:48yelling at the crowd,
00:50all while the receivers sprinted up the field
00:52on what would ultimately be
00:54the game-winning Hail Mary for the Commanders.
00:56Fortunately for Tyreke,
00:58he had enough time because
01:00the Bears' three-man pass rush
01:02couldn't do shit, and Jaden Daniels
01:04ran around for about 13 seconds
01:06before heaving the ball down here, so
01:08Stevenson was able to get into position.
01:10Was it the right position?
01:12TBD.
01:14But he got his hand on the ball.
01:16Instead of the ball going down,
01:18it went up and back
01:20and into the hands of Noah Brown,
01:22who scored the game-winning touchdown.
01:24Did his taunting
01:26cause him
01:28to have this fuck up?
01:32He did his job, right?
01:34He got hand on ball.
01:36Yeah, it is
01:38probably pretty hard to get hand on ball
01:40in this situation.
01:42The thing that's difficult about this
01:44is, for the defense in moments like this,
01:46everyone has a designed
01:48role. You are supposed to
01:50box out particular
01:52players on the other team. You are supposed
01:54to be leveled up
01:56in a way where people know
01:58I'm boxing out. I'm the
02:00one jumping up to bat down the ball.
02:02What's 22 doing here?
02:04Everybody's going for the ball.
02:06Everyone is going for the ball.
02:08Maybe not 21. Maybe 21 was
02:10trying to do his job, and then every other Bear
02:12swarmed around him. It almost looks like
02:1421 is cheerleader style,
02:16like, my job is to hoist.
02:18So taunting in sports
02:20has always been a thing.
02:22Typically, though, I think we are
02:24familiar with taunting when
02:26the play has ended.
02:28It's a way to celebrate doing
02:30a good deed. Mutombo
02:32finger-wagged
02:34after blocking a shot.
02:36It would have been cooler if he did it before,
02:38though. If a guy's driving
02:40the lane and Nkembe Mutombo's like,
02:42uh-uh, don't do that, and then he blocks the shot.
02:44One hand blocking, one hand wagging.
02:46That's a lot cooler. But there's a reason
02:48why he didn't do that, right?
02:50Like, that would have taken his head
02:52out of the game. It would have taken
02:54an appendage
02:56away from doing his job.
02:58Yeah, because you sort of need the upper hand,
03:00right? You need to be like, I am the winner.
03:02I am the victor. Look at me.
03:04Be mean now.
03:06And I guess that's what makes it risk-reward, right?
03:08Where it's like, okay, but if you pull off the taunt
03:10before doing the thing, and then you do
03:12the thing, infinitely cooler.
03:14Yeah. If there's a risk-reward,
03:16then the payout,
03:18the odds
03:20get more favorable, or get
03:22it's like a bigger multiplier if
03:24you do your taunting with less
03:26certainty. So in this case, the player
03:28didn't know necessarily
03:30that the Bears were going to win the game,
03:32and indeed they didn't. He took a risk.
03:34If he had already
03:36deflected this ball, the commanders don't
03:38finish the pass, the game ends, the Bears win, and
03:40then he taunts the crowd. It's like, okay, fine,
03:42but you have nothing to lose here. It's not
03:44that impressive. And really, how
03:46often do Hail Marys, especially Hail Marys
03:48that actually get tipped by the
03:50defense, succeed?
03:52It was a pretty safe bet.
03:54I would even argue it might be
03:56too safe a bet.
03:58If I were at that game, and I saw
04:00him taunting the crowd, I'd be like, yeah,
04:02cool, you waited until
04:04it was only a Hail Mary would win the game
04:06to talk shit to the crowd.
04:08Do it in the second quarter. Do it when you're losing.
04:10Yeah, you'll see.
04:12It's the Michael Jordan
04:14quote. It's like, yeah, it's fine if you talk shit
04:16when you're up, but talk shit when it's
04:18even. Talk shit when you're down.
04:20That's when I know you're real.
04:22I think what this reminds me of in
04:24other most humiliating
04:26examples of taunting
04:28was the
04:30poor Wizards, Michael
04:32Ruffin. I believe
04:34it was a regular season game, and
04:36just, they're up,
04:38you know, clock's winding down,
04:40just tosses the ball up in a sort of,
04:42hooray, we win.
04:44There was a little bit of time left,
04:46and the other team caught it and
04:48shot a three and won the game. I like that
04:50too, because it is misjudging
04:52how much can happen in a short amount of time,
04:54just like this, but it's also misjudging
04:56his own throwing ability.
04:58He's like, if I throw this ball straight up
05:00to the rafters, it'll be up there for, what,
05:02seven, eight seconds, and then the ball comes down
05:04and you're like, shit, I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
05:06That's right.
05:08This'll go up forever, right?
05:10The Ruffin story reminds me of
05:12I think it was
05:1449ers versus
05:16Bengals, I want
05:18to say. A team had
05:20the ball with six seconds left, fourth
05:22down, around their own 30,
05:24and instead of punting, they
05:26said, we'll just call a running play.
05:28I'm sure that'll run the clock out.
05:30What are we going to do, drop the ball?
05:3249ers tackle him with two seconds left on the clock.
05:34Joe Montana finds Jerry Rice
05:36for a touchdown to win the game, one play later.
05:38Yeah, so same deal.
05:40I think that I
05:42can waste this
05:44time through athletic prowess.
05:46That's, I can throw the ball up in the air
05:48and it'll be up there a long time, and the game
05:50will end. I can run around until
05:52the game's over. Nope. I guess if this
05:54were that, he tips the ball,
05:56the ball's hurtling through the air,
05:58and then while the ball's in the air, he's like,
06:00well, that did it.
06:02Woo! Fuck you guys,
06:04I'm taunting you, and then the ball comes down
06:06in someone's hands. Right. So it could have
06:08been worse for him. You know what?
06:10I think it could have been worse.
06:12How mindful do you think he was of the taunting he had
06:14just done in
06:16the seconds leading up to this?
06:18I am very curious if we are seeing him
06:20touch the ball because he was
06:22thinking, I just did something
06:24stupid, and
06:26I see a clear way to make
06:28up for that, and so instead of doing
06:30my role of boxing somebody out, I'm
06:32going to be the jumper.
06:34And that's why 31,
06:36who's in good position here,
06:38has no ball to
06:40bat down. The inverse
06:42of this, where
06:44taunting goes really
06:46well for you, you taunt in the moment
06:48and you succeed, Usain Bolt
06:50celebrating before
06:52crossing the finish line on a world
06:54record sprint.
06:56Yeah. That's cool.
06:58And costing himself, you know,
07:00a couple hundredths of a second or whatever.
07:02That makes it so much cooler.
07:04That then people can shake
07:06their heads and be like, and he should
07:08have just run it out.
07:10So that's if he picked this.
07:12Well, no, because even
07:14picking, if you get an interception, that's
07:16really not doing your job because
07:18an interception can lead to you fumbling it.
07:20I think this goes back to your
07:22point of
07:24the perfect outcome
07:26of a play like this
07:28does not really warrant
07:30taunting. Now I'm trying to think of
07:32the true inverse. Noah Brown,
07:34before the
07:36play begins, commanders are losing,
07:38takes his helmet off, gets down
07:40on the field and just sobs at the game
07:42that his team has lost.
07:44And then they snap the ball, he gets up,
07:46he's like, you know what, I'll go
07:48out there and run the Hail Mary play
07:50and then catches the game-ending touchdown.
07:52That's the true inverse, as if you
07:54mourn defeat.
07:56The reverse of taunting being
07:58mourning.
08:00And I think it would have been even cooler if
08:02Usain Bolt did that, is what I'm saying.
08:04If he, a couple meters into
08:06a 100-yard sprint, was like, well,
08:08what's the point? He's already checking his watch
08:10to see his split time. You guys got this one.
08:12And then he's like, you know what,
08:14and he runs and he catches up and wins.
08:16Right, right, right. Bolt throughout his
08:18career, I think even if he
08:20didn't taunt in the classic sense,
08:22every race he won felt like taunting
08:24because of how good he was. Tyreek,
08:26I'm sorry to compare you two.
08:28Here's what you should have done. It's like, no.
08:30We do have a meme for this.
08:32There is a cultural representation
08:34of this phenomenon in
08:36Nick Young celebrating
08:38with his back turned to the three-pointer
08:40as it rattles out. Not quite as devastating
08:42a moment. Didn't lose him the game,
08:44but like... But I would argue
08:46it's become more devastating
08:48because of its life outside
08:50of... Yeah. Honestly, this guy is lucky
08:52that the best depiction
08:54capturing the entire moment
08:56was just someone's cell phone
08:58because Nick Young got caught
09:00in a perfectly angled replay
09:02that lent itself to gifing
09:04on national television.
09:06To your point about, well, it didn't cost
09:08him the game. No one thinks about the game.
09:10Right. That is
09:12one of a couple gifs
09:14that are like, what is Nick Young's
09:16career? Could have been worse.
09:18Yeah. Yeah.
09:20He's lucky even.
09:22Quite right. Let's celebrate Tyreke.
09:24Yeah, I mean, I think Taunting
09:26is just cool in general.
09:28Yeah, you know, even in an
09:30embarrassing outcome, it's
09:32still kind of cool. It's human.
09:34And I think the earlier
09:36you do it, the cooler it is.
09:38So I'm going to say right now, I am going to hit
09:40a walk-off home run to win the
09:422058 World Series. Hell yeah, dude.
09:44I once again was afraid
09:46that Taunting was going to turn on me.
09:48Well, maybe you're the pitcher. You don't know.
09:50Oh, wow. Tara, we've got to work on this.
10:18you
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