PARTY ON!
Goodell caves, allows more TD celebrations
Welcome to the Nearly Fun League.
Beginning next season, the NFL — long derided as the “No Fun League” — will relax its rules regarding on-field player celebrations, commissioner Roger Goodell announced in a letter Tuesday.
The commissioner, who spoke with more than 80 current and former players about the unpopular guidelines during the offseason, said group celebrations will be allowed again, and players can use the ball as a prop. Players also will be permitted to celebrate on the ground — for example, making a snow angel.
Last season, the NFL penalized and fined 26 players for excessive celebration, according to MMQB.com, but nearly all of those celebrations would be allowed under the current criteria.
“We know that you love the spontaneous displays of emotion that come after a spectacular touchdown,” Goodell said in the letter. “And players have told us they want more freedom to be able to express themselves and celebrate their athletic achievements.”
Players, long critical of the strict and inconsistent punishments, will not be given a free pass to perform any act in the end zone, though.
“Prolonged” celebrations, which delay the game, and offensive gestures of a violent or sexual nature are still prohibited. Goodell also wrote that “those [demonstrations] directed at an opponent will still be penalized.”
While most players and fans are in favor of the change, Goodell’s move didn’t earn unanimous approval. Though the commissioner wrote that celebratory limits were kept in place in order to maintain “sportsmanship, clean competition, and setting good examples for young athletes,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis failed to see how that could still be a priority of the league.
“I’m not for that at all,” Lewis told ESPN. “We had a good standard, and the whole standard has always been, you want to teach people how to play the game the correct way and go about it the correct way, and that’s not a very good example for young people.
“Again, this is a team game, and ... I don’t understand why we want to give in to individual celebrations.”
Other rule changes implemented Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Chicago included reducing overtime periods from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, according to multiple reports. The switch, supposedly made with safety in mind, comes after six overtime games lasted more than 10 minutes last season, marking the second-highest total in league history.
The NFL also eliminated the 75-man cut in training camp. There now will be only one cut, from 90 players to the final 53-man roster.