Joe Horn: Are the Bills, Browns, and Raiders still total trash?

Michael Thomas: Yeah…

Horn: “Aww spacetime is just fine then”

The age of nostalgia reboots has hit the TD celebration scene. Two famous celebrations re-created just this week! Kevin Byard went and pulled a TO by posing on the Dallas Star logo at midfield. But before that happened, Michael Thomas pulled out a cell phone and for a brief moment in time, we all remembered the name Joe Horn.

All the announcers pooped on it because RESPEK DA GAME but sorry fellas, this owned. It owned hard. Give me more. “What if the Rams had come back and won it?” Well, then it might have owned even harder, because that would have made it both awesome and ironically hilarious. Like posing on a boat before a playoff game. Sometimes you gotta talk the talk and pull out some disrespectful taunts to make yourself a legend and face the consequences if it blows up in your face. Announcers and old fogies will wax poetic about IT’S ABOUT THE TEAM and NO SELFISH FOOTBALL but seriously…it’s a fun celebration after a score with a harmless prop. Sports is entertainment. I was entertained. It’s rich to hear Troy Aikman talk about how disrespectful it is when he saw his career boosted by the likes of Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders. Troy Aikman can go eat paste.

And let’s not forget that for all the TEAM talk, there is very much an incentive to find a way to stand out. That kind of stuff gets you endorsements and higher contracts (if you back it up with play of course). It gets you noticed. If Joe Horn never busts out a flip phone and creates an iconic moment in football celebration lore, does anyone remember Joe Horn? Saints fans obviously would. Die hard NFL’s probably would. The Dude got some pro bowls in his day. He certainly had a career he could be proud of, but at best he’d go down as one of those dudes you occasionally have a random memory of and go “he was pretty good”. But a decent career is one thing. A place in NFL lore (even one this small) is arguably better in some ways. Good to great players who have decent careers get forgotten about, but special moments stick around. Joe Horn will always be cell phone guy to me and to many other people, and that’s not a bad thing. Lore lives on more than number of pro bowls. Nobody is going to tell their children about Joe Horn going to some pro bowls. They will tell them about hiding a flip phone in the endzone. I think that shit rules.

I miss you, Joe Horn. Thank you, Michael Thomas, for helping me remember Joe Horn.