Sports

How low can celebrations go?

URBAN MEYERFrom TV to Ohio State sideline.

URBAN MEYERFrom TV to Ohio State sideline. (REUTERS)

It’s enough to make you cry. And it’s enough to make you cry out, “Enough!”

Funny thing about live sports telecasts is that the throw-away shots — the meaningless, habit-formed junk shots — can show up as the most meaningful.

Such was the case Sunday, late in CBS’ Bills-Jets, when CBS cut to a front-row crowd shot, one of those shots with people mindlessly banging on the padding. A red-haired kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old — Opie — seemed ready for the invite from CBS’s camera and field microphone.

“Bills suck! Bills suck!” he hollered.

Isn’t that cute?

The adult standing to the kid’s right — the father? uncle? — wore a smile on his face that indicated that he was not only comfortable with what the kid was shouting, he was proud.

Regardless, once upon a time, such a kid, all kids, would have shouted “Go Jets!” Now? “Bills suck!”

This came near the end of a must-win game for both sides, a game determined, to some large but indeterminate degree, by a penalty on Bills’ receiver Stevie Johnson for an absurdly excessive post-touchdown end zone routine that was designed to promote him and mock the Jets.

By Sunday evening, writing for Monday, I figured this was it; we had hit bottom.

But never say or write “never.” Monday night, during Giants-Saints, we went even lower.

Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks was blasted from behind by Saints defensive back Issa Abdul Quddus as Nicks tried to make a leaping catch over the middle. It was one of those hits, you knew, and right away, from which few receivers simply get up and walk away. A flag was thrown for leading with the helmet.

But Quddus was too overwhelmed with joy and self-satisfaction to notice or care about Nicks or the flag. He immediately jumped around, flexing his arms, doing a tribal dance in praise of himself.

Even after it became clear to him that Nicks was down and hurt and that a flag had been thrown, Quddus ran over and exchanged a running high-five with fellow DB Malcolm Jenkins.

Did it not dawn on either of these neo-cultural football heroes that if Nicks’ season or career had ended with that hit, they would be stuck with that video of their blood-dancing for the rest of their careers?

However, on ESPN — the former Monday night home of “He Got Jacked Up!” — the talk, with Jon Gruden in front, turned to the smaller picture — whether the personal foul call was warranted. What a pandering shame. Another golden opportunity wasted.

A few plays later, Giants’ running back Brandon Jacobs, who lately seems less eager to be known and remembered for terrific runs than for being a jerk, scored on a short run. Now his team trailed by 12.

But that didn’t prevent Jacobs from begging, a la Stevie Johnson, the day before, for a flag. Jacobs performed an exaggerated, taunting dance toward the Saints defense. That he wasn’t flagged seemed an additional sin.

This game, at its highest level, is in such disgusting, desensitized disrepair that if it were a building, it would be condemned and knocked down to make room for something far more worthwhile, like a prison.

‘MNF’ has experts in the obvious, misleading and downright wrong

From Joe Duggan, Newington, Conn.: “My wife came to bed near the end of last night’s “Monday Night Football”/Jon Gruden filibuster. I told her that I have a headache!”

Why doesn’t anyone at ESPN believe us? MNF telecasts make far more noise than sense. Why force us to invoke the Geneva Convention? Make them stop!

Gruden, in the first quarter: “The Saints are converting 53 percent of their third-downs … and you can talk about all these stats and total yards, Ron [Jaworski], but when you convert all those third downs, that gives Drew Brees and this offense three more cracks at ya.”

Live and learn.

Gruden, a few plays later: “This is the part of the field they call the ‘Red Zone Fringe’ — just outside the 20-yard line.”

But the Saints had the ball at the Giants’ 36! Could the Red Zone Fringe be as big as the Red Zone? Bigger?

In the third quarter, Giants tight end Jake Ballard caught a pass, belt-high, off a stop, turn, move-back-to-the-ball pattern. As kids, we called it a button-hook. If there’s one kind of play when a receiver’s size is a non-factor, this was it.

But Jaworski, over a replay, asked us to ignore what we saw in order to believe what he said we saw: “Jake Ballard, 6-foot-6, about 275 pounds. .. Here’s where size advantage works for Ballard.”

And let us all holler, “Nurse!”

Giants honor brave punter Jennings

The toughest guy on any football field Sunday will be a kicker. Dave Jennings, former punter for the Giants and Jets, will be inducted into the Giants’ Ring of Honor at halftime of the game against the Packers.

A superbly prepared — no one knew game rules better — and honest analyst on Jets and Giants radio broadcasts, Jennings, 59, has been suffering mightily and bravely from Parkinson’s — and all the rotten stuff that comes with it — the last 15 years.

* If the NFL genuinely wants to rid its games of all the anti-social, horrible-example post-TD end zone (and beyond) garbage, it can be easily done. Just eliminate the PAT try. “You done? Fine. Now tell your team to go kick off.” Instead of scoring seven or eight points, you get six. Unless players miss the memo or the team meeting, that would cure it, and fast.

* TV continues to serve as a between-stops VIP lounge: Rich Rodriguez leaving CBS Sports Net to coach University of Arizona; Bob Davie leaving ESPN to coach New Mexico; Urban Meyer leaving ESPN for Ohio State; Bobby Valentine leaving ESPN for the Red Sox; Mike Leach, leaving CBS Sports Net to coach Washington State. Next!

* Steiner Collectibles, in conjunction with the Yankees, is running a holiday special: Yankees clocks that include a coin holder “filled with actual dirt from Yankee Stadium,” 50 percent off. For real. That’s right, discounted dirt! Who knows? Maybe your dirt will have Nick Swisher’s spit in it. Pinstripe Pride!