Players annoyed with NFL’s crackdown on celebrations
Hey NFL players: If you want a safe way to celebrate touchdowns and big plays, just hug it out. Don’t twerk. Don’t pretend to shoot a bow and arrow. Don’t even think about playing basketball with a football. And, never take your helmet off.
“Hugs are always legal,” Dean Blandino, the NFL’s senior vice president for officiating, said in an explanatory video earlier this month. Not a hugger? No problem. You have options.
“This may seem crazy, but you can always just hand the ball to an official,” Blandino also said in the video sent to news media and teams. The league’s crackdown on celebrations has resulted in more unsportsmanlike penalties.
There have been 22 taunting penalties through Week 7, up from 13 at this point in 2015 and double the total after seven games in 2014.
“The rule hasn’t changed in terms of what is and what isn’t taunting,” Blandino said, adding referees were advised to make it a point-of-emphasis call. “Fouls go up initially, and then as the players start to regulate their behavior and they understand where the bar is, we start to see the foul numbers go down.”
But many players and fans don’t understand why the league cares so much about celebrations. They’re quick to call it the “No Fun League.”
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Torrey Smith criticized the league last week in a series of tweets after former Giants kicker Josh Brown was placed on Commissioner Roger Goodell’s “exempt” list because police documents revealed Brown admitted to repeatedly abusing his former wife while they were married.
“Celebrating a TD will get you fined but being an abuser can keep the checks coming in,” Smith wrote on Twitter. “Gotta start taking the things that are important serious .... and be consistent with the investigation and punishment.”
In his video, Blandino said: “We’re not trying to legislate emotion out of the game. Sportsmanship and player safety are the two top priorities in the game today.” No doubt, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson’s dancing, the Ickey Shuffle, the high-fiving Fun Bunch and Mark Gastineau’s sack dance wouldn’t be tolerated. Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson would’ve been ejected for their creative celebrations.
“We talk about, we want to grow the business of the NFL and revenues,” Jets wide receiver
Brandon Marshall said. “We see growth from 10 billion to 20 billion (dollars) by the end of 2022. We need more of that. We need guys to come out of the box. We need Antonio Brown twerking in the end zone. Kids shouldn’t be fined for that. Guys should go out there and wear colorful cleats. That’s our culture right now. This is this new era, this hip-hop and lifestyle era. We need to embrace that. You can’t just put guys in a box.”
Blandino explained that Brown was penalized for twerking because it was “sexually suggestive” and sends the wrong message to youngsters watching the sport. “We don’t want that out on the youth football field,” Blandino said. “That’s not the image we want to portray.” — AP