At some point, every NFL has pejoratively referred to the league as the “No Fun League” because of their needless and silly crackdown on celebrations. The league has at least somewhat recognized this, and plans to relax those rules for next season.
In his “state of the league” press conference before Super Bowl 51, Roger Goodell hinted that he wanted to relax some of the rules regarding excessive celebrations and “try to allow players the ability to express themselves in an exuberant way.”
The competition committee discussed the issue at the scouting combine, and while no firm decisions were made, there is growing sentiment that “harmless and spontaneous celebrations” would be allowed, while “excessive, prolonged or vulgar” demonstrations would continue to be cracked down upon. Those words are obviously vague, but it is at least a step in the right direction for a league that almost practically banned celebration of any kind last year. The talked about lighter guidelines will likely be adopted and implemented during the owners meetings later this month.
Last season, NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino said there were a total of 30 excessive celebration penalties in just over 40,000 plays over the course of the season, though there was plenty of attention given to some calls at the beginning of the year.
This is a positive step for the NFL, but saying they’re going to do something and doing it are two different things. Let’s see what happens in September when Antonio Brown dances after scoring another TD.
[ESPN]
