Jolly Green Giant Airhead Thug

Mike Vandermause
Nov. 4th, 2009

In a somber locker room following the Green Bay Packers’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, a handful of reporters waited for defensive lineman Johnny Jolly to explain his puzzling first-quarter, momentum-changing personal foul penalty.

Jolly’s head-butt of running back Chester Taylor was an ill-conceived, dimwitted infraction that seemed to give the Vikings the spark they needed in running off 24 consecutive points on their way to a 38-26 victory.

 

Packers linebacker Nick Barnett had just stuffed Taylor for a 5-yard loss on a third-down pass, and the Vikings were going to settle for a 32-yard Ryan Longwell field goal. It was a momentous event for the defense, until Jolly arrived on the scene and ruined everything. 

For some reason Jolly felt the need to bang his helmet against Taylor’s in a taunting gesture, drew an obvious penalty flag and handed the Vikings a first down at the Packers’ 7. Four plays later Minnesota scored a touchdown to take a 7-3 lead and never trailed again.

 I expected Jolly to say he lost his head in the exuberance of the moment. Or maybe Jolly would explain that Taylor insulted one of his relatives. Surely he would offer an apology to his teammates and Packers fans, or at the very least Jolly would display a shred of remorse and humility for his inexcusable conduct. 

Instead, a defiant Jolly basically blew off the penalty, said it was part of his aggressive mind-set and maintained it had no bearing on the game’s outcome. 

“It wasn’t deflating to me at all,” said Jolly, standing in front of his locker. “I’m going to play hard regardless. It is what it is. They made the call and that’s what it was.”   Full Story Here