NFL owners adopted a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebrations
last week and an automatic ejection for flagrant violations.
NFL owners adopted a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebrations last week and an automatic ejection for flagrant violations.
The new rule was designed to end the long-distance phone calls and staged end zone dances.
But fans have come to enjoy and even expect the celebrations after the ball passes over the goal line. The ceromony has become a part of the professional game.
No one remembers the 90-yard one-handed catch. It is always the dance in the end zone that is talked about the next day.
There is not anything wrong with a good celebration, but when it becomes more of a taunt, it should be penalized.
But if a celebration is done with teammates and not done in a demeaning fashion, I see no harm. Even some staged celebrations don’t necessarily distract from the game but tend to give a team personality.
Now even the age-old spike of the football and the slam dunk through the cross bars will be banned. The jump into the stands popularized by the Green Bay Packers will also be history.
Each team has patented certain types of end zone festivities. There was Terrell Davis’ military solute and the Atlanta Falcons “Dirty Bird” performance, where players would fly about like birds with their heads cut off.
My all-time favorite has to be former 49er Merton Hanks and his crazy chicken walk. He would violently jerk his head back and forth on his long string-like neck.
The NFL tried to implement an “excessive celebration” amendment to the rules in 1984 to get rid of everything except the simple spike. It was also enforced by a 15-yard penalty.
But in 1991, commissioner Paul Tagliabue eased up the rules to disallow taunting only, giving teams the freedom to celebrate as they chose as long it was in good taste.
The celebrations are nothing new but have escalated as players have tried to be more creative.
The NFL is the only sport that has to worry about celebrations. What would happen if Barry Bonds pulled out a six-shooter and snapped it off at a spinning baseball after a home run? He would be on the ground with a heater to the head next time up.
Baseball players know that if they celebrate too much or in any way try to show the other player up, they or another player will be taken out.
A slow trot or pause while running around the bases is often a just cause for a pitcher to throw inside.
The whole baseball world is waiting to see how Roger Clemens, who has pitched in the American League during all 20 years of his career, will fare in the National League where he will have to bat.
It never fails. Once a dance is performed, it is often mimicked the next week all across the country in Pop Warner and high school games.
There are already rules in place preventing youth and high school end zone celebrations. But every once in a while, a player or two will bump chests or celebrate a little too long, especially when the team is up be a sizable margin.
The new NFL rule change won’t prevent celebrations. Players will now have to be more inventive because they know that it will be a little more costly.
It seems like each week there is always one or two professional games that come down to the unsportsmanlike penalty. A late flag is dropped on the field, and everyone groans.
Yup, sure enough. The dreaded 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. These unsportsmanlike penalties are often subjective and could easily decide the outcome of the game.
Unsportsmanlike conduct falls under the rule “Any act contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.”
But that statement is vague and could be interpreted different ways by different referees.
Players are constantly taunting each other during the game. And the trash talk has just become another aspect of the game to see who can get the mental advantage.
Players should be allowed to celebrate. After all, scoring a touchdown is not an easy thing to do.
But there has to be limits on the amount and type. Any taunting obviously should not be allowed, such as Terrell Owens’ stunt in the Dallas Cowboys’ star on the field.
A cell phone? Probably not. A Sharpie? Definitely not. You got to wonder if having a pen stuck in his sock caused a distraction for Owens while playing. “I wander if this thing is going to bleed.”
And then there are some celebrations like 300-pound Warren Sapp’s pogo dance which are downright scary.
The Raiders, ironically, were the only one of the 32 teams that voted down the celebration rule change.
Now that Sapp has joined the team, fans should expect the pogo to return this season and maybe with some ketchup on it.
He is one player who will make the Raider Nation proud, even if it does take some lunch money or cost extra yardage.
Anyone for a group photo?
