It doesn’t take much to get the great Phil Mushnick, TV/radio critic and national moralist for the New York Post, worked up.

(Mushnick’s recent dissertation on MTV seemingly nearly put him in a hospital.)

Joe would be perpetually irritated if not outraged as well if he had to watch BSPN for his job. If Joe was assigned such a task for his livelihood, Joe believes he would either be an alcoholic, hooked on Ritalin or addicted to narcotics of some form if not locked up in a mental health institute.

So, aside from his splendid writing, Joe is impressed with Muchnick’s fortitude.

Mushnick is no fan of Warren Sapp. So given Sapp’s recent developments with his girlfriend and police in Miami over the weekend, it wasn’t much of a gamble to predict that Mushnick would be gloating over Sapp’s recent late-night hassle.

So, the NFL Network shelved slick-talking Warren Sapp pending an investigation into allegations of domestic assault. But long before that, after Sapp retired as one of the most penalized and fined players in NFL history — sanctions for on-field misconduct, including precipitating a pre-game brawl — both NFL Network and Showtime chose to have him star on their NFL studio shows.

Why?

Because both networks, including the one owned and operated by the NFL, chose to try to look hip instead of being smart.

Joe has read Mushnick lodge such a charge against Sapp before: that he was one of the most penalized men in the NFL when he played. Joe would like to see some numbers on that claim. Off the top of his head, Joe would bet that Kenyatta Walker, a virtual walking, breathing holding penalty, had as many flags thrown his way as Sapp.

Still, the day that Mushnick retires, will be a very, very dark day in American journalism.