- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
It's not really celebration that's the problem -- instead, they're trying to stop two things: taunting and what you might call "grandstanding." Do you remember the Icky Shuffle, or the Dirty Bird? Neither of these were celebrations, exactly -- the players were not overcome with emotion, they just wanted attention.
I don't want college players grandstanding or taunting -- don't want them pretending to light the ball on fire and fan the flames, whipping out a Sharpie and signing it, inventing a new dance, etc. A well-written rule that targets that behavior, combined with a little common sense in enforcement, would be 100% fine.
But the NCAA is instead using a poorly-written rule as a blunt instrument. And, sure, that blunt instrument prevents a player from doing a hoochie dance with the football and a nearby cheerleader. But it also would penalize a player so overcome with scoring his first touchdown that he runs over to his mother in the stands without first returning the ball to the officials. And that's...kinda dumb.
As it stands, we must penalize both someone doing the Dirty Bird and someone who just tosses away the ball so that they can jump into their teammates' arms, because both actions technically fall within the "rule" against celebration. But, come on, use some discretion.
