EXCESSIVE CELEBRATING

Monday, December 31, 2007

Today is New Year’s Eve. And that calls for celebrating; in many cases—excessive celebrating! But New Year’s Eve celebrating is not the celebrating I’m thinking about. My mind is on the celebrating that is done following a touchdown in football. If you watch much football, you know that a team is penalized for what is called excessive celebrating. The penalty is severe—usually 15 yards.

Now in my mind this is just silly. Check this out: A player has just made a touchdown, which is a big thing. It may be the first touchdown the guy has ever made. It may be a touchdown that wins the game. It may be a come from behind touchdown in the last few seconds of the game. It is a reason to celebrate. And there is absolutely no reason to be penalized for that. Sure, if the guy gets carried away and interferes with the game, does something destructive, harmful or vulgar, then he should be penalized. But not for just being happy that he made a big play.

Also, the guys in the striped shirts are not consistent. They don’t penalize the players on the defending team who celebrate when they stop a big play. Yesterday I saw two players who broke up a pass play, dance in the end zone and then jump in the air and bump butts.
No penalty! What’s up with that? Now, I think they should have been happy and I think they should have celebrated. But let’s get real. If an offensive player is going to be penalized for celebrating, then penalize the celebrating defensive player also.

What is excessive celebrating? The referees know. You know. I know. And I haven’t seen anything excessive lately. Let’s face it, the team scored against is embarrassed--dance or no dance.