I don’t understand this – what’s the big deal about goofing off after scoring a touch down? In the NHL, it’s practically encouraged after scoring a goal. (My personal favorite was the time that Tiger Williams rode around the ice on his stick)
But in football, you can’t even make a fist pump without people criticizing you. What gives?
Players celebrate touchdowns all the time without getting fined- and not just touchdowns either. If a guy makes a tackle or picks up a first down he’s more likely than not to strike a pose or do something. There are penalties for excessive celebration and they’re handed out a bit more often than they used to be because the celebrations were getting bigger and more obnoxious - at least some fans felt that way - since players were starting to use props and do more elaborate, planned celebrations that involved multiple teammates and things like that. There was Joe Horn with his pretend cell phone call, Terrell Owens with the Sharpie (and a bunch of others), Chad Ochocinco/Johnson and a bunch of his routines, and on and on. So the NFL made rules saying that celebrations can’t involve multiple teammates, players can’t fall to the ground while celebrating, and they can’t use outside props as part of a celebration. All of that for doing their jobs.
I liked Subban’s “bow and arrow” schtick. That was kind of cool. Ovie’s “hot stick” thing just looked awkward. If you didn’t know what he was trying to do, it was like, “WTF???”
(Well, that and Ovie’s just an asshole)
Peter Bondra used to pretend to tip his hat after a hat trick, I believe.
Some other good ones:
Teemu Selanne throwing his glove up in the air and pretending to machine gun it with his stick
Because if they didn’t draw a line, players would one up each other more and more until it got beyond ridiculous. It already was happening which precipitated the rule in the first place.
Right. Players aren’t prohibited from celebrating, or even doing dances, after scoring. What will draw a penalty is when it becomes:
a) excessively long / elaborate
b) pre-orchestrated (such as when Joe Horn pulled a cell phone out of the padding on the goal post – which he’d put there before the game for that purpose – to incorporate in his routine)
c) involving multiple teammates in a pre-orchestrated way (such as when the Redskins’ “Fun Bunch” group of receivers would gather in the end zone when one of the group scored, to do a group dance)
One week of the year, the NFL should allow up to two minutes for each end-zone celebration. You score in week 8, you get to dance, sing, make cell phone calls, get teammates and others involved. The clock ticks down to 00:00 and your performance time is up.
Frankly, I find the celebrations stupid. I grew up in the old days of the AFL when, after you scored a touchdown, you dropped the ball in the end zone and went back to the bench. You were a professional, not a clown.
There is nothing cooler than nonchalantly leaving the football in the end zone. It says you’ve been there before, and you’ll be there again. Nothing to celebrate because it’s something you do all the time.
Regardless of what you think of celebrations, having it be a 15 yard penalty is asinine. That’s the same as dangerous personal fouls that cause actual harm. Let the punishment fit the crime: 5 yard delay of game. That’s all.
Taunting is still out, and you could give warnings for first offenders, and increase repeated violations to larger penalties, but throwing such a huge flag is only bringing more attension to the dances.
I’m much to young to have watched any AFL games, but I mostly agree with this. I can understand being excited and giving a teammate a slap or high five or a fist pump or whatever if it’s a particularly important score or a spectacular play. Emotions are an important part of the game, and I think there are tasteful, professional, and sportsmanlike ways to express them.
What’s ridiculous is when a guy makes a 2 yard run or a 5 yard catch for a touch down and then does a dance, or strikes a pose after a first down or a tackle for no gain; even worse when they’re still losing by multiple scores. It shows a complete disconnect from the state of the game and just feeds into the image that the sport is about money, personal stats, and TV time. Those are situations where you are just doing your job and can do whatever celebration or congratulations you need on the sideline.
I would agree with reducing the penalty on two conditions. It would apply to minor celebrations that just waste time, where ones that are really obnoxious would still be unsportmanlike and deserve 15 yards, where the former might apply to a silly dance and the latter would apply to pre-planned ones or those using props. Fines should also be applied appropriately since it’s not so much a team thing. Fines don’t really work so much for hits, since that’s years of training that needs to be undone, but they’ll definitely discourage planning celebrations.
Percy Harvin is a class act. Both his touchdown celebrations on Sunday involved running over to a kid in the stands, giving them the ball, and heading back to the bench. Wish more players could emulate that.
Didn’t they really crack down on this when Ownes and Ochocinco started doing stupid crap like leaving cell-phones and pens in the goal post padding?
Edited: Oops, someone beat me to it.
As much as I love Aaron Rodgers I wish he’d quit with the belt celebration.
The dumbest celebrations are when a team is down 40 points in the fourth quarter, a defensive player finally sacks the QB and then proceeds to celebrate like he won the game for the team.
I hate this saying. You just scored a touchdown in the National Football League, the pinnacle of your profession, act like it means something, not like you just ran a drill or something. There is no need for excessive celebration, but c’mon, you scored a friggin’ touchdown for your team.
I’m not talking about taunting, or hiding cellphones in balls. But what’s wrong with a stupid dance, or jumping up and down? (I like the guy who treated the ball like a baby – that was funny)
Professional athletes are, ultimately, entertainers. They get paid to entertain us, the viewers. And the little touchdown celebrations are entertaining. I really don’t see the problem here.
OK, yeah, at some point you need to break out the old vaudeville hook and get on with all the rest of the entertainment. But a 15-yard penalty isn’t a hook; it’s scooping the performer off the stage with a backhoe. If the problem with a celebration is that it’s delaying the rest of the game, throw a delay-of-game penalty.
It should perhaps be noted that Orr didn’t score his goal and then celebrate with a leap - the ‘leap’ resulted from being tripped as he made the shot. But he definitely was celebrating while airborne.