Celebration = exuberant act of happiness intended to show joy after a major accomplishment. Example: Jake Locker throwing the ball in the air after scoring a last second touchdown in a big game at home with the crowd going wild.

Taunting = mean-spirited act aimed at an opponent with the intent to antagonize the opponent. Example: Terrell Owens running out to midfield to celebrate on Dallas' star.

In my mind, the difference between celebration and taunting is where the line between penalty and non-penalty should be drawn. Celebrations are fun to watch and fire up the players and the crowd. Taunting is bad sportsmanship and risks instigating a fight. One should be a penalty, and one shouldn't be.

Also on the same subject, I seem to remember a similar dichotomy in the discussion of the suspension of the two (or 3? don't remember that clearly...) Phoenix Suns players a couple of years ago for leaving the bench during a skirmish in the playoffs. Maybe our reactions are also related to strong feelings about the place of rules in a society? Or maybe I'm stretching a bit with that one.

The question is whether the celebration pisses off the other team. If you go nuts after scoring an ordinary TD, that's definitely not cool, and you risk starting a brawl. But go nuts on the game-tying TD w/ no time left? Go for it, any team would do the same. The refs should penalize any taunting and keep the game moving, but otherwise stay out of the way.

In soccer, this is illustrated perfectly. Wild celebrations are of course commonplace, but never taken personally. After awhile, the ref will come over and break up the party (often with a smile on his face), but nobody's worse for wear.

Consider the dishwater-for-blood white men in suits who own and run the NFL and the black athletes who play the game, albeit concealed beneath helmets and protected with enormous pads.

It's a cultural thing. Blacks celebrate viscerally. Makes white people uncomfortable.

I'm focused on football because other sports basically don't matter.

So the bloodless androids pass another stupid rule. No throat-slashing. No taunting. No being black, essentially. Play your role and get the fuck off the field. It's a wonder they allow that jumping-up-and-down tribal warm up dance all teams seem to now participate in. I swear I saw that in "Zulu" back in the early Sixties. Just add spears.

OK, dump on me. I realize that wasn't a politically correct thing to have written but I don't really give a fuck about being politically correct.

I think it comes down to this: I played high school football. I was a lineman, so there were never really opportunities to "celebrate" or grandstand after a great play... I did my job, blocked my guy. Sometimes that broke a running back loose, or gave our quarterback time to connect on a touchdown pass. I always thought guys who danced in the endzone and made asses of themselves were not only showing up the other team.. but were disrespectful to their teammates who got them there. So, maybe the ones here who think it is all fine are simply the backs and receivers who got to score all the TDs and those of us who disagree are the roleplayers, the linemen of the world... so to speak.

And it's a great example of where a ref should be able to exercise some judgment. Yes, there are judgment calls in football--pretty much every borderline pass interference call is just that. So let the refs decide what's just some exuberance at a special moment in a game and what's taunting. They're going to take a hit for whatever call they make--the refs have gotten creamed on this one--so they might as well have the independence to make a call they can justify.

Gordon - I think you're dead wrong about it being a black vs white issue. Look at the NHL. White folk dominate the ranks of players AND management, and they celebrate goals like nobody's business.

As far as the original topic goes - I think that celebration is fine. Taunting is not. So, "Yay, I scored a touchdown!" = good, whereas "In your face, I scored a touchdown!" = bad. I wouldn't think that this simple bit of logic would be so hard to enforce.

Don't make it a rule! You're trying to legislate human emotion...and in college kids at that! Celebration and exuberance should not be stifled, and taunting and bad sportsmanship carry their own intrinsic penalty. Maybe the guy gets hit a little harder next time he's in the game, or the other team gets motivated to play harder, or maybe there's just no sympathy for the taunter when things don't go so well for him. These things take care of themselves. To make rules about them distracts from the game, and leads to ludicrous and unjust consequences as in the BYU Washington contest.

If you watch what Locker was doing, it was celebrating with the linemen who sprung him. He got rid of the ball to go over and give proper attention to his teammates. I think that's what college sports are supposed to promote.

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.