ROSS RESPONDS: PLAYER CELEBRATIONS

“Serve The Public Trust, Protect The Innocent, Uphold The Law.”

That could be the mantra of the NFL…but isn’t. It’s a quote from the character of RoboCop, the robotic crime fighter of the late 1980s. It’s easy to understand how a robot’s quote could be mistaken for an NFL quote. After all, the people who run the NFL and many of its stodgy, jealous, ultra-conservative, Haterade drinking fans want its players to BE robots. “Chad Johnson is a clown!” “Joe Horn should be ashamed of himself for pulling out the cell phone!” “TO’s Sharpie incident ruins the game!” All of those statements have been said at some point.

My question to those who constantly complain about these celebrations is this: Why and how? Why does TO’s Sharpie disrespect the game? How does Chad Johnson’s creativity embarrass the league? The inevitable answer is: “It disrespects the game because it puts the focus on the individual, not the team, and that’s not football!” Please. How’s the weather up in your ivory tower?

What is so wrong with saying, “Look at me?” Why can’t an individual celebrate an accomplishment? Doesn’t that touchdown help the Holiness that is the team? Here’s a newsflash—playing in the NFL is a grueling, extremely dangerous job. It’s also a gig that only a few people are good enough to do. And those few people recognize that their playing career is a short one, one that’s very likely to leave them with a permanent injury.

So when they reach the end zone and score, why shouldn’t they be happy? Why shouldn’t they be able to celebrate? It’s not easy to get there and people are emotional. “Act like you’ve been there before?” Why, because YOU say so? Nah. Or perhaps because the league is terrified that through individuality, players (read: young, black men) will somehow gain control their (read: old, white men) league? And what exactly is excessive?

Jumping into the crowd in Green Bay isn’t excessive, but using the ball as a prop is. Why? Because someone thought of celebrating before the game and said, “If I score, I’m doing something cool to celebrate?” Because it’s pre-planned, it’s a penalty? Why? I want a guy on my team to score, and if the visualization of doing something when he gets into the end zone somehow motivates him a little more, that’s fine with me. And just who determines whether or not a touchdown celebration is “excessive?” People who are scared of a youth culture they don’t connect with, that’s who.

The same people who tell teenagers that their music is too loud. The same people who condemn younger generations for being too dependent on technology. Sadly, these are people who run things in the NFL. They are disconnected from entire generations of fans and they don’t think before they condemn. They don’t think that people are individuals, even if they play a team sport. The NFL can’t turn players into robotic player-machines, no matter how hard they try. So some people think celebrations are self-serving acts that are indicative of the decline of Western civilization. Well, some of us think that if it’s too loud, you’re too old. Some of us think that Chad Johnson is one of the best things IN the NFL right now and we look forward to his next act of creativity. So why are those who show disdain for Johnson and his fellow revelers in the right? Why must everyone adhere to THEIR mindset?

People, despite what these palookas want, ARE individuals and individuals display their emotions in different ways. Everyone knows people who are outgoing, and everyone knows people who are quiet or shy. Everyone knows someone who likes to be the life of the party and everyone knows someone who hangs back, taking it all in. That’s what makes society so enjoyable—the differences which make us all individuals. Those who want to remove that are not to be applauded, they are to be exposed as the arrogant, “think like me or you’re wrong,” out of touch people that they are.

And those who make the argument that these celebrations are insulting to the other team, I have this to say to you—1) It’s a game, lighten up. 2) If the other team doesn’t like it, they should try a bit harder to stop the “offensive” player from scoring. 3) If they don’t like the celebration, then take it out on the player. Hit him extra hard next time. Players in all sports used to do a pretty good job at policing themselves…but now even that has been removed, put into the hands of those who don’t play but somehow know better.

Keep this in mind as you’re reading this pro-celebration column with outrage: Chad Johnson’s next touchdown celebration will receive the same penalty as the next concussion-causing late hit on a quarterback. Does that seem right? Is curtailing celebration THAT important? For the love of Billy White Shoes, it’s like Footloose these days!

This “offensive” behavior is a celebration of both the individual’s accomplishment AND a celebration of the team’s effort to get him there. While these joyful antics may irk the so-called football purists, I believe that some end zone merriment is necessary at this point. It’s necessary to take our minds off of all of the stories which cause actual harm to the league—Vick, PacMan, steroids, bad officiating, etc. But even in the face of these real problems—problems grounded in violence and drug use…problems which transcend sport and permeate our society as a whole—some people don’t want to go there.

Those who choose to stick their heads in the sand are reduced to pointing the finger away from the real problem and pointing it at something innocuous. They’ll have us all think that Chad Johnson using a pylon as a putter is the problem. Well, it isn’t, at least not for me. I love the anticipation of a Chad touchdown…I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next. I only hope the celebration police don’t arrest him for it.

Agree? Disagree? Drop Ross a line: ross@nfldraftbible.com