Hlas column and KCRG/Gazette SportsDesk Webcast: Who knew Shonn Greene was so ... silly?

The SportsDesk (sponsored by Jim Miller Subaru) is after the column.

Why, Shonn Greene, why?

Why did you act like another of the NFL's "Ain't I Great" goofs after your touchdown against the New England Patriots Sunday?

Screeeech. That was me slamming on the brakes. I'm not criticizing the former Iowa Hawkeye for his end zone antics late in the New York Jets' 28-21 playoff win at New England.

Greene bounced a run outside and went 16 yards untouched for the score that put the Jets up by two touchdowns with 1:41 left. He then waved good-night to Patriots fans, slumped to the ground, and feigned going to sleep with the football as his pillow.

I hadn't seen that one before. And I laughed. It was purely a gut reaction. I thought it was funny.

After thinking about it a while Sunday night, I wondered if maybe I should have been a little offended. That wasn't good sportsmanship, and it was pretty vain.

So I watched a replay of it on YouTube to see if I would appall me a little. And I laughed again.

"You're professionals! This is a business!" a North Dallas Bulls assistant coach shouted at seemingly Neanderthal offensive lineman O.W. Shaddock in the Bulls' locker room in Pete Gent's pro football novel "North Dallas Forty."

"Every time I call it a game, you say it's a business," a fed-up Shaddock (played by John Matuszak in the movie version) roared back. "And every time I say it's a business, you call it a game."

Coaches and a lot of fans want players to mentally stop on a dime. Play the most chaotic and violent of team sports full-tilt with fire. But use your brain at all time. OK.

Attack, attack, attack. But be professional and don't do anything to embarrass the team. Uh huh.

In a game Jets Coach Rex Ryan had billed as his franchise's second-biggest in history, Greene's TD run pretty much sealed a huge upset over their division rival and the team considered the NFL's best.

He turned an intended clock-eating run into a glorious score of magnitude. His early-season reputation as a fumbler seemed as distant as his days unloading furniture trucks in Coralville.

How likely was it that, in that moment, Greene would gentlemanly hand the ball to an official and trot back to the sideline when he had enough adrenaline flowing through hs veins to lift an SUV?

This from a low-key guy who I don't think ever spoke on HBO's "Hard Knocks" last summer in its five-part series on the Jets' training camp.

So he had his "look at me" moment. You couldn't help but wonder how Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa coaches felt watching Greene fall in line with teammates Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, a couple of less-than-stellar citizens who don't seem to mind posing, preening, and doing back flips.

Adding to the possible consternation: Brian Ferentz, Kirk's son, is the Patriots' tight ends coach. And Bill Belichick, Kirk's former boss when they were with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s, is the Pats' coach.

But mostly because it was a former Hawkeye playing the fool to a national audience, not really being all that Iowa-ish.

Greene got a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Ryan may have been the only coach in the sport, at any level, who didn't mind. Ryan went hobbling and wobbling down the sideline to give Greene and his mates positive feedback.

You can't underestimate the circuslike atmosphere Ryan has created into factoring why Greene showboated. When you let players be big mouths, they'll be big mouths. When the example you set is loud and puffy, your 53 players won't act like businessmen in helmets and pads.

Now, I like Ryan. He wears his emotions on his sleeves. The world couldn't function if everyone did that, but thank goodness for those who do. The reasonably sane ones, anyway.

The Jets-Patriots game was watched by 43.5 million people on CBS, and with good reason. It was better theater than a lot of what was honored later that night at the Golden Globes.

But does curling up for a nap in the end zone after a touchdown qualify as anything other than pure silliness? Well, if it means players treat football as a game as much as they do a business, I can live with it.