The No Fun League Tries to Loosen Up

Will a demo like Terrill Owens' center of the filed downing the ball be allowed? Hope not, that bit of clowning cemented my negative opinion of Owens. It didn't help that he played for Dallas, the most hated team in the league, very few class people there.

Can you imagine what it would be like if everyone danced around like a idiot every time they accomplished what they get paid to do?

I will never forget the late, great, Junior Seau, and his perfect celebratory moment, when during a snowstorm, after scoring a touchdown, he made the perfect snow angel! Of course, he incurred a penalty, which frankly I thought was unnecessary.
I was extremely saddened to learn of his extensive brain damage. May he RIP. He remains one of my favorite all-time football players!

You say celebration, I say cerebration. Let's call the whole thing off!

If you've loosened up the cerebral cortex, the cerebrations, as it were, you might as well loosen up the celebrations. You can't make this stuff up, but you can make fun of it.

So, it's the No Fun League because people get killed playing in it, not because they can't celebrate getting killed playing in it, right?

You can come up with some pretty "unique" dances when brain damaged. Or is that a seizure?

This is easy. Just make the rules explicit:
(1) Celebrations must last no longer than seven seconds.
(2) No taunting the opposing team, no sexual gestures, no gestures that mimic weaponized violence.
(3) Celebrations are limited to all territory behind the goal line.

Considering concussions, CTE, and permanent brain damage are the NFL's sine qua non, wouldn't cerebration be more in order?

Backflips, another gymnastics seem reasonable expressions; a hand sign, denoting something like "we are number one" should be penalized!

All celebrations are fine with me except the ones that mimic sexual activities--you know the ones I mean, and the players do too.

For every hour of ostensible football, there is, on average, 11 minutes of actual game or action. Why not fill the remaining 49 minutes with celebrations?

Celebrations are commonplace in virtually every other sport -- baseball, track, basketball, tennis, golf, skiing, you name it. Why should football be any different??

As as Wise Man has said, "If you can do it, it ain't bragging." Or showboating.

Denigrating opponents is something else again...

celebrating touchdowns (or whatever)...isn't that what the cheerleaders are for?...let them do their job...

Here's the obvious dilemma--why does an old-school league feel like it needs to widen its appeal to the entertainment expectations of callow youth? There's already a problem with perceived carelessness, or worse, regarding traumatic brain injury. If the game survives, it has to survive at a more mature level.

This is how the No Fun League pivots to the Not For Long league, not with a bang, but a concussion, many of them.

"Sportsmanship"? Dignified behavior? Gimme a break. This is generation woo-hoo and football is beginning to weaken badly. Bring on the clowns! Let 'em do anything they want (short of setting each other on fire). Whatever keeps seats filled and viewership alive.

It is interesting to study the history and evolution of sport. But the evolution includes changes in a negative way such as a lack of sportsmanship among players. In some sports there is almost a circus atmosphere. As the NFL relaxes their rules the circus will grow. The ridiculous behavior of athletes, whether throwing the ball into the crowd or dancing about degrades the sport and sportsmanship. Some argue that it is entertaining. But it is narcissistic behavior common in almost every sport. It has become acceptable, even promoted by some in the media. I trace this conduct back to the 1960's when Muhammad Ali gained worldwide fame with his trash talk backed up by his great skill. The media and the public ate it up and it was imitated by young people everywhere. By the 1980's it hit the staid game of tennis with the antics of John McEnroe. Today this circus atmosphere is in every sport so it appears that pro football held out longer than most others. Sadly this circus atmosphere trickles down to youth sport. While it may be entertaining for fans and the media, this conduct does nothing to promote the sport itself and sportsmanship. Kids are harder to teach because they imitate the adults. Sportsmanship, fair play, the love of the game...have all taken a hit. The players who demonstrate great talent and humility are the ones who should be emulated by the next generation and the media. There was a time when people played sports for the love of the game. But that is history.

Like plenty of other people, I to am an avid National Football League fan. I for one am happy to see that the NFL is attempting to loosen up in regards to players celebrating after touchdowns. Despite that the players get paid large sums of money to play football, a lot of people do forget that at the end of the day it is just a game.
The purpose of most games are to have fun. In my eyes, the NFL has attempted to take the joy and passion away from the game. So when a player breaks a big run or makes a spectacular catch and scores a touchdown, they should be able to celebrate.
With that being sad, I do believe there should be certain restrictions. For example, I don't feel as if you should be able put your hands on another player, even after a huge play in the game.
While reading this and looking at some of the pictures, I couldn't help but to think of some former players in the NFL who had numerous amounts of memorable celebrations. Players like Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson just to name a few. We all know they would have gotten in the end zone as they did throughout their illustrious careers. One can only imagine how many more legendary celebrations these two and many more would have given us.
I do like the idea as previously stated. I just hope the referees can adapt well and allow (good) celebrations to be a part of football again.

There's nothing wrong with expressions of joy after scoring a touchdown, but the NFL is totally justified with penalizing the totally unsportsmanlike taunting gestures like the throat-cutting motion and the contrived and over the top orchestrated celebrations that have gone on over the years. Perhaps the NFL has been a little misguided with and some of the restrictions have been overreaching, but I think their goal has been noble (at least in this instance) - these celebrations tend to anger the opponent and can result in raised tempers and dangerous violence outside the rules of the game. I agree with Eli Manning that the players should be busy planning the touchdowns and not the celebrations. Does anybody really watch these games for the touchdown celebrations anyway? If that's what I wanted to see I could always tune into Dancing With the Stars.

How about, "Give me a C. Give me a T. Give me an E. What does it spell? Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy."

And I'm going to love seeing officials respond as players push the boundary between celebration and taunting, an area that will prove ripe for Supreme-Court-level interpretation and argumentation from columnists, fans and players. If the NFL thought they were solving a problem here, just wait for the celebrations to be judged taunts, if not in the eyes of the referee, then in the eyes of steaming opponents. The rivalry revenge sagas will be epic. And it may not be pretty in the slightest.

Personally, I find the "celebrations" annoying. Choreographed end zone dances aren't a "celebration," they're just showboating.

Bravo!! We need more celebration and fun in our lives.

Celebrations, as well as the topic of celebrations, are, by definition, a distraction from the game. But if the League of Brain Damaging Fun wants a distraction for their brain sacrificing employees, and for the fans that enjoy watching people transform their healthy brains into substantial bank accounts, whuddyah gonna do? If anything, the loosening of celebration rules doesn't go far enough -- who wouldn't want to see a group backflip after every first down? or every tackle?

I have always maintained that there is nothing like an unrestrained celebration of permanent brain damage.

Thanks NYT for the gratuitous, typically cynical story on the NFL. Remarkable that for a game that remains hugely popular across the country, it is granted coverage probably equal to badminton or checkers. A game for cretins and masochists one would think. This says something about how out of touch is the NYT with the rest of the country. Watch out or Roger Goodell will be the next President.

Celebrate all you want. It will not make your CTE any easier deal with once you leave the NFL...