Adam Rosenbloom, Sports Editor:

Stevie Johnson is a disgrace.

Honestly, I don’t mind him, but I’ll gladly take any opportunity to bash Buffalo. This one just happened to fall into place.

For better or worse, athletes are role models in this country — and not just for kids. There’s no getting around it, and that may not be a good thing.

Everybody loves a good touchdown dance, especially one that make us laugh. Chad Johnson’s (he wasn’t Ochocinco yet) post-TD antics were both hilarious and clever. Using the pylon as a putter as an impersonation of Tiger Woods? Genius.

Those are the kinds of dances that children want to imitate in Pee Wee football. But when guns enter the picture, it all changes.

Stevie Johnson pretending to shoot himself in the leg was a blatant slap in Plaxico Burress’ face. It was funny, but it crossed the line, and the resulting penalty definitely contributed to the Bills’ loss.

Roger Goodell is a pain in the ass, but that’s a good thing. If it weren’t for his strict oversight of the league’s players, things would have gotten out of hand a long time ago. Fining players for excessive or crude celebrations keeps things in check. Athletes play a sport for a living, but regardless it is still their career. Show some class. You wouldn’t grab your groin in front of your coworker if you worked on Wall Street, would you, Marshawn Lynch?

Sometimes the fining seems over the top. Too bad. Don’t bitch about getting fined $10,000 for making a snow angel after scoring a touchdown, Wes Welker. You can’t go to the ground. Read the rules.

Back to Stevie Johnson. Sunday marked the third anniversary of Burress’ infamous “shot heard ‘round the club.” The dance was clever, well done. It also made a mockery of improper gun use and was shown on television in front of millions of children. Not well done.

Many get frustrated with how Goodell and the NFL handle these situations. Plenty of frustrated fans feel seemingly every celebration results in a fine. Who cares? Since when are celebrations a part of the game anyway? Do your job. If you want to dance, take it to ABC — that’s what Jason Taylor and Hines Ward did, though the former’s moves weren’t overly impressive.

A line has been established, and I tip my cap to Goodell for doing so. The rules are clear, and it’s blatantly obvious which celebrations will fly and which won’t. The rules don’t need to be adjusted; the fines do.

Randy Moss put it best. After being fined $10,000 for his classless “mooning” of the Lambeau Field crowd, the then-Vikings wideout really didn’t care. “What’s $10,000, to me?” he asked. Seriously, to him it’s like losing a $5 bill.

If Goodell really wants players to stay in line and respect his rules, he needs to up the fines. How about $50,000 for every questionable celebration? Maybe even $100,000. Maybe then my favorite TD dance will make its way back to the top — handing the ball to the ref.

Jordan Rabinowitz, Opinion Editor:

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson celebrated a touchdown Sunday against the Jets by fake-shooting himself in the leg. The clear jab at Plaxico Burress was deemed distasteful by many, so I guess my pallet for these kinds of things is different from the masses’.

This was hilarious.

If I were the right build, I’d become a football player just so I could taunt all the other players about their highly personal, sensitive issues.

All right, so maybe there should be some limits. I’m not going to line up all of my teammates like dogs and “take them outside” if I were playing against Michael Vick. There are some things that should stay off the field, but this isn’t one of them.

If Plaxico Burress was dumb enough to shoot himself in the foot, society should grow a pair and feel comfortable laughing at him for doing so. Call me a sucker for creative touchdown celebrations, but wasn’t Stevie Johnson just expressing what we all feel about Burress?

Burress was mocked and taunted endlessly by popular media after his infamous nightclub incident; this is just another person’s means of expressing how he felt.

Make no mistake, I am a Giants fan and I may be harboring some lingering resentment for Burress. His old west duel with himself virtually ended the Giants’ 2008 campaign — they were 11-1 before the ordeal, 1-4 after, including a first-round exit in the playoffs.

So perhaps I’m more accepting of Burress criticism than your average fan, but still, Johnson’s celebration merits no punishment.

And even though he’d never admit he was perturbed by such a display, just look at Burress’ response during the postgame press conference.

“I’ve already been through the ringer with that whole situation,” Burress said. “The result I’m looking at is, we won the football game, and he turned around and dropped three wide-open balls to lose the football game for his team.”

If Burress isn’t offended, we shouldn’t be. His trial by firearms didn’t affect me or you. It was his own bone-headed dilemma, and he needs to face the music and in this instance, Stevie Johnson was playing the tune.

Moreover, I don’t believe Johnson’s celebration hurts the integrity of the game whatsoever. If anything, Terrell Owens destroyed it a long time ago with pom poms, sharpies and popcorn.

Owens celebrated with silly, pointless antics. He made noise, but nobody cared to listen. He was gratuitously over the top with no purpose or direction.

Johnson was throwing a purposeful haymaker at Burress. He was pinching Burress’ deepest nerve, hoping to get into his head. Burress probably couldn’t grasp it on Nov. 28, 2008, but such taunting comes with the territory of making foolish decisions.

Now, a line needs to be drawn. But chances are if a player has a committed a wrongdoing so foul that it warrants public outcry when an opposing player visibly taunts him, he shouldn’t be playing to begin with.

Stevie Johnson did what he did, so let’s let it go. He had to eat his words and with every next drop, they got harder for him to chew. But ultimately, it was Burress who needed to be held responsible for shooting himself in the foot, not Stevie Johnson for expressing his feelings.