The Eagles and the big dance (not that one) Posted on August 26th
Paso Doble? No way.
Tango? Heck no.
Cha-cha? Uh-uh.
If the Eagles are to do any dancing, it will be of the celebratory type after a big play on the field. Or it will be in a social setting, out of the intrusive eyes of television cameras beaming every Quickstep or every turn in the Viennese waltz to more than 100 million viewers of Dancing With the Stars.
“Absolutely not,” tight end L.J. Smith said. “It’s hard not to look feminine. Am I right or am I wrong?”
The cast of 13 celebrities chosen to take part in this season of Dancing was breathlessly announced yesterday on Good Morning America. For fans of the second-highest rated television show (behind American Idol), the announcement likely generated more water-cooler discussion than the Democratic National Convention and the final medal tally of the Beijing Olympics.
Dancing With the Stars begins its seventh season Sept. 22. For the fourth time, a football player is among the male celebrities who agreed to be tutored in ballroom dancing by a professional dancer.
This time, Warren Sapp, recently retired 300-pound defensive tackle and former all-pro, will test the sturdiness of the dance floor.
Ex-running back Emmitt Smith was crowned champion in 2006. Wide receiver Jerry Rice, graceful as a gazelle on the field, was too stiff to match Smith’s achievement. Last season, defensive end Jason Taylor gave it a good run but was beaten out by Kristi Yamaguchi.
Here in Eagles land, a small sampling of the Birds revealed interest in the show among the players. Each of four players interviewed - Smith, Chris Gocong, Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown - said he watched the show to some degree. “I check it out sometimes,” Smith said, somewhat reluctantly.
Yet only one said he’d go on the show if given the chance.
“You obviously have never seen me dance,” Gocong said with a laugh. “But would I do it? Yeah, I’d do it. I don’t know how far I’d get. I might look like Jerry Springer did when he was on.”
Looking around the locker room, Gocong added, “I think a lot of the guys would do it. But probably none of us would be good.”
A lot of guys?
“I don’t know about that,” Sheppard said. “I think maybe Donovan [McNabb] and Omar [Gaither] might do it. I think outgoing guys like them might do it. But me? No, no way. First of all, I can’t dance like that. Maybe I could learn, but I just have better things to do with my time than play around with ballroom dancing.
“I mean, it’s something that’ll bring you a lot of publicity, but I don’t want that. I’m just a low-key-type guy who does what I do and moves along.”
In the macho culture of the NFL, it might be surprising to learn that Dancing With the Stars occasionally comes up in locker-room banter among the players.
“Guys talk about it,” Sheppard said. “But you don’t hear them saying they’d like to be on the show.”
Brown doesn’t schedule his night around watching the show, but he acknowledged he records it.
“Mainly because there are usually professional athletes who are part of the show - Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, people like that,” he said. “But no way I would do it. It’s just not something I’d want to learn. I mean, after being on that show, where would I go to dance like that even if I learned?
“It’s a huge commitment,” Brown added. “And I don’t think I’d want to spend my off-season learning how to ballroom dance when I could be doing something I really enjoy, like being on the lake with my boat.”
Smith said to not get him wrong - he’ll get on a dance floor, but not for that kind of dancing.
“If it was some other type of dancing, maybe,” Smith said. “Maybe the ballroom dancing I could do, but the other stuff sometimes looks too feminine to me.”
Extending his arm and bending his wrist, Smith smiled.
“You’ve got to do that to pull it off, you know what I mean?” he said. “Even [Smith, Rice and Taylor] had to do things that looked a little bit feminine to pull it off. And that’s just not for me. There are probably a handful of dudes [on the Eagles] who would go on the show, but not this cat here.”
Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.