If you haven't checked out our Patreon yet, it's a good time to do so https://www.patreon.com/secretbase
Taunting is a game of risk-reward. If you do something awesome and then deliver a taunt, it's pretty cool. But if you taunt and THEN do something awesome, that's just bad ass. Unfortunately, we've learned over time that this can also have the opposite outcome. Tyrique Stevenson learned that the hard way.
When the Chicago Bears faced off with the Washington Commanders, they thought they had the win in the bag as the clock approached zero. Tyrique certainly did. Unfortunately, Jayden Daniels had other plans.
There's plenty to learn from this moment, from previous taunts, so let's take a look in the newest episode of "Reframe."
Taunting is a game of risk-reward. If you do something awesome and then deliver a taunt, it's pretty cool. But if you taunt and THEN do something awesome, that's just bad ass. Unfortunately, we've learned over time that this can also have the opposite outcome. Tyrique Stevenson learned that the hard way.
When the Chicago Bears faced off with the Washington Commanders, they thought they had the win in the bag as the clock approached zero. Tyrique certainly did. Unfortunately, Jayden Daniels had other plans.
There's plenty to learn from this moment, from previous taunts, so let's take a look in the newest episode of "Reframe."
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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