Baldwin’s celebration was clueless, classless and embarrassing

If you’ve ever seen someone pretending to defecate after pulling down his pants in public, he was likely hammered, and it probably happened at a college fraternity. All things are possible when you mix young and dumb with alcohol.

You don’t expect to see it at the Super Bowl, yet we did when Doug Baldwin “celebrated” his 3-yard touchdown catch by squatting on his make-believe toilet.

Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin fined for touchdown celebration

NBC producers smartly pulled away from Baldwin when they saw him lower his pants, saving him from instantaneous world-wide embarrassment. But other cameras caught his act, and the images are there on the Internet for all to see.

Baldwin has officially become an embarrassment to the Seahawks, Stanford University and whatever high school, middle school and elementary school he went to.

On Wednesday, the NFL fined Baldwin $11,025 for his obscene gesture. On Tuesday, when players cleaned out their lockers, Baldwin had a chance to apologize for his foolishness, but he stood his ground, expressing no regrets.

“I was just out there having fun playing the game football,” Baldwin said, via John Boyle of the Everett Herald. “There’s no explanation. You play this game for so long, you go out there and you have fun. I can get criticized for it, that’s fine, everybody has their opinion, but in the moment, I was just having fun.

“My teammates know that. Ultimately, the only people I have to apologize to are my teammates and coaches, but my teammates and coaches, they know. They didn’t say anything. That’s not even an issue. We lost the game. There are so many other things to be concerned with than something stupid like that.”

Baldwin also said immediately after the game that the bathroom gesture was directed at someone in particular, and he sounded extremely satisfied that the message was delivered.

What prompted it? We’ll never know. I’d venture to say we never want to know. Did someone tell him the Seahawks’ receivers are crappy? Well, he sure showed them.

No one in his right mind would have pulled a stunt like that. Even my 10-year-olds thought it was stupid, and they’re 10.

Will it ever stop? Apparently not. Two days before the Super Bowl, Baldwin confronted Sports Illustrated’s Peter King in the middle of practice and said: “You’re into this mediocre receiver (bleep), right? You’re one of them! I read your (bleep).”

King was shocked that a player would interrupt practice by challenging a sportswriter for some perceived slight.

“He should spend less time finding phony ways to motivate himself and more time learning what adulthood is like,” King wrote.

Two weeks after his stupid little rant at reporters in a CenturyLink Field hallway, Baldwin followed it up with the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in a football game.

You could maybe – emphasis on maybe – cut him some slack if he spontaneously went to his bathroom celebration right after catching the touchdown pass. But after preening in the end zone for a few seconds, Baldwin remembered that, oh yeah, I need to go sit on an imaginary toilet now.

Rehearsing the celebration, did he think it would be funny? Wasn’t there a filter in there somewhere, which exists in most human beings, that would have told him what he planned to do was really ridiculous?

And then when he could have made up for it all by simply saying he was sorry, he was predictably defiant Doug.

Even if his teammates and coaches didn’t say anything to him, Baldwin should have apologized anyway for costing the team 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff because of his unsportsmanlike penalty. The Patriots didn’t score on their next drive but started with good field position at their own 37-yard line.

Angry Doug should also realize the only reason he was so open on that play was because of an inadvertent screen by an official on cornerback Darelle Revis in the end zone. It’s not as if he ran a sensational route, plus it was his only reception in the game.

At least when Baldwin called his bathroom celebration “something stupid like that,” he was surprisingly accurate.

Two weeks ago in a SeattlePI.com column, I criticized Baldwin for his rant at reporters, mainly because it was the 18 millionth time he’s played the disrespect card. How about simply being grateful and proud of yourself for beating the odds and being the No. 1 receiver on a team that has played in two consecutive Super Bowls? And being a player who was rewarded with a three-year, $13 million contract last May. I can’t figure out if Baldwin has issues that need to be resolved or demons that need to be exorcized.

One more thing. Sometimes guys who think they’re cerebral really aren’t. Case in point: Doug Baldwin, who completely flushed away what was left of his positive image in the Super Bowl.

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.