NFL puts the fun back in TD celebrations

Snow angels, group demos will both be allowed

The No Fun League is no more. It’s the Some Fun League now. Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday announced the NFL’s decision to lighten up and allow a wider range of look-at-me scoring celebrations.

In a letter to fans under the headline, “Touchdown celebrations: snow angels, group demonstrations and more are back!” Goodell wrote that after he held conversations with more than 80 current and former players, “we are relaxing our rules on celebrations to allow players more room to have fun after they make big plays.

“We know that you love the spontaneous displays of emotion that come after a spectacular touchdown. And players have told us they want more freedom to be able to express themselves and celebrate their athletic achievements.”

Goodell cited three examples of actions that now will be permitted:

Using the football as a prop after a TD Celebrating on the ground Group demonstrations At his news conference Tuesday that concluded the NFL owners’ one-day spring meeting in Chicago, Goodell said he disagrees with concerns — including those long expressed by Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis — that loosening the rule would result in improper actions that, in fact, don’t set a good example for youth.

“I think the players will do this in a way that will be responsible, show good sportsmanship and do it in a way that I think is entertaining but also respectful,” Goodell told reporters.

And it’s time. It’s both a good move and a good look for the Commish and the league. It’s just too bad they didn’t go far enough.

Indeed, Goodell also wrote in his letter to fans that in the name of “sportsmanship, clean competition and setting good examples for young athletes,” celebrations that are offensive, prolonged, delay the game, or are directed at an opponent still will constitute a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Clear as mud, then, right? How do you define offensive? Most things cool to a teenager are offensive to a retiree. Etc., etc.

Here’s a prediction. By the end of September we’ll all be as confused by this rule — what’s permitted, what isn’t — as we are by the catch rule.

It’s just what the NFL didn’t need: another vague rule, open to interpretation, that begs controversy and sows embitterment.

In Chicago, NFL owners passed three bylaws first considered two months ago at the annual meeting.

First, overtime periods will be reduced from 15 minutes to 10. That opens up the possibility, albeit unlikely, that a team receiving the overtime kickoff can use up all 10 minutes just to kick a winning field goal. So much for both sides getting a possession in OT.

The owners intention with the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addresses the media after the NFL owners meeting Tuesday in Chicago. rule change is to make the game safer; shorter overtime games mean fewer snaps, which mean fewer injuries.

Second, the 75-man cut-down has been eliminated. Previously, teams cut down their 90-man training-camp rosters in two steps: to 75 on the Tuesday before the final pre-season games on Thursdays, and to 53 on the Saturday afterward. Now, teams will just trim from 90 to 53 on the Saturday — rendering 1,184 players unemployed at once.

Third, owners voted to allow two players per team, instead of just one, to return from injured reserve to the active roster during the season.

A fourth bylaw change owners mulled, whether to allow assistant coaches under contract to one club to agree in principle during the playoffs to become head coach of another, has been tabled for further discussion, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

After the Rams announced the other day that spring rains have forced a oneyear construction delay on their glitzy new stadium in Los Angeles, NFL owners voted to similarly delay the venue’s first Super Bowl. Instead of playing host to Super Bowl LV after the 2020 season, Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s dome gets Super Bowl LVI in February 2022. The venue now is slated to open for the 2020 season, not 2019 as previously planned. Tampa Bay, the runner-up in NFL owners’ voting for LV, will stage the 2020 championship game at Raymond James Stadium.

Hall of Fame defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy was found dead on Tuesday in Orlando. USA Today quoted an Orlando Police spokeswoman as saying there’s “nothing suspicious” about the 48-year-old’s death. Kennedy played all 11 of his NFL seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, from 1990 to 2000. He made eight Pro Bowls and was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.

New York Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson verbally walloped former teammate Brandon Marshall, the veteran receiver who’s now a member of the New York Giants. On Tuesday Richardson told reporters the Jets locker-room “is a whole lot easier to get along with now.” Why? “We’ve got 15 reasons why better,” he said.

Marshall wore No. 15 last season. The Jets were seen as a leading AFC wild card playoff contender in 2016, but finished last in the AFC East at 5-11. Marshall is one of several outspoken, big-ego veterans from 2016 no longer with the Jets. Marshall and Richardson reportedly disliked one another.

Jamaal Charles, the former star Kansas City RB now with Denver, won’t practise this spring. As he attempts to return to full health following a torn ACL in November 2015, Charles is being held out until training camp in late July … Dallas Cowboys D-lineman David Irving is appealing a fourgame suspension for violating the NFL’s policy against performanceenhancing drugs, according to reports … Is the Chicago Bears’ freeagent signee QB Mike Glennon worried about No. 2 overall draft pick and future-face-of-the-club Mitchell Trubisky? Nope. “This year is my year, and I’m not going to worry about the future,” Glennon said. it’s