NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will reportedly take it easy on some of the rules regarding player celebrations, according to Tom Pelissero of USA Today:
Roger Goodell is expected to tell NFL owners group celebrations, using ball as prop after TDs, going to ground, snow angels are now allowed.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 23, 2017
Goodell has been meeting with players for months on this. Emphasis on spontaneous exuberance. Result should be more fun, fewer flags.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 23, 2017
Peter King of the MMQB wrote about the expected rule changes on Monday:
The NFL flagged and fined 26 players for excessive celebration last year; most of those celebrations this season will not be penalized or fined. Commissioner Roger Goodell and his staff met on at least two occasions this spring with a large group of players (one club official told me Goodell talked with more than 40 players about this issue) and came to his senses: It’s asinine to use the “ball as prop” reason to penalize players, and even more asinine to fine someone $12,000 for the simple act of expressing joy after scoring a touchdown. Most of those penalties will disappear Tuesday at the league meeting.
The NFL’s strict celebration rules have been widely criticized by both fans and players, which has led to the infamous nickname given to the NFL: “No Fun League.”
Goodell has defended the strict rules on the basis of sportsmanship:
“It’s also something that we’ve been dealing with for well over 35 years since I’ve been in the league in the same concept: balancing sportsmanship, avoiding taunting and trying to allow players the ability to express themselves in an exuberant way to celebrate, we think that’s great. We want to see more of that. We want to see the players do that. But we want to see them do it respectfully to their teammates and their opponents.”
Given the change to the celebration rules, it appears the NFL does have common sense and realizes that self-expression and sportsmanship can co-exists.
So to sum it up, it’s okay to do group celebrations but sorry Antonio Brown, twerking is still banned.
