NFL touchdown celebrations are going away. Well, that depends on whether players follow the rules.
Don’t dance. Don’t spin the ball. Don’t dunk the ball. And above all else, don’t have any sort of fun if you do something that’s worth celebrating.
Now that the NFL season is in full swing, fans will once again get to see all sorts of scoring plays that make football so exhilarating to watch. However, this year fans will have a tough time figuring out whether or not the players are even excited about scoring.
Why? Because the NFL is cracking down on touchdown celebrations harder than ever before.
After enforcing a set of restrictions last year, including spiking the ball and conducting a military salute, the NFL is back at it this season. The latest prohibited demonstration is the “goalpost dunk” made famous by ex-NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez, who happened to play both football and basketball in college. Current stars who used the move before its ban include tight end Jimmy Graham and wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
“It’s sad. It’s one thing after another,” former star wide receiver Terrell Owens said in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.
Over a successful yet colorful career, Owens became well known for his antics after scoring touchdowns. From pulling a sharpie out of his sock to sign a football for a fan, to dumping a fan’s box of popcorn into his helmet, Owens was one of the trailblazers when it came to celebration in the sport
Another household name in the heyday of excessive touchdown celebrations was former wide receiver Chad Johnson. Some of his most famous celebrations include using an end-zone pylon to putt the football and donning a sombrero and poncho that he’d kept on the bench.
Excluding virtually every type of touchdown celebration has brought mixed reviews.
The argument against the celebrations is that it taunts the other team and takes away from the integrity and respect that athletes are supposed to have for each other. Also, there have been “celebrations” over the years that went much too far, such as former wide receiver Randy Moss pretending to moon a group of opposing fans.
The argument in favor of the celebrations is that they are a way for players to show enthusiasm when they make a big play. Without mocking others, they can be humorous and even generate a buzz in the media. That’s good for fans and the league.
Regardless of the arguments, the NFL’s rules are in place and don’t appear to be budging any time soon. Players will need to abide, or have their teams suffer the consequences in penalty yards.
“They are taking all the creativity, all the excitement away from the game,” Owens said. “At some point, players have to stand up for something. We have to be able to celebrate within the confines of the game.”
Jordan Horrobin is a freshman sports writer for The Post. Do you think touchdown celebratoins should return? Let him know @jordanhorrobin or jh950614@ohio.edu.
