This one is actually still illegal. :-( © Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The NFL is about to ever-so-slightly undo the top button and loosen the tie for the upcoming season. According to reports out of Chicago, where the league is holding some offseason meetings, Roger Goodell is going to tell owners that certain previously penalized celebrations will no longer be penalized.
Team celebrations will also be allowed.Now, before we all start busting out into "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," let's remember that middle tweet there and also remember the NFL has a rulebook that makes the IRS Tax Code look like a cuck. This type of micromanaging is a reason the league has next to no idea what a catch is.I don't know how many people plan on miming weapons in a touchdown celebration, but I can't imagine it's many, certainly not enough to have a specific exception (and, anyway, isn't the best defense to a bad mimed gun, more good mimed guns, not more regulations?). But the NFL lives and breathes on specific exceptions. If law and order is good, then more laws and more orders is better.
The NFL is in the business of keeping up appearances, so it's also obsessed with making sure no one sees a "sexually suggestive" dance move while they enjoy watching giant men destroy each other, hours after these fans drank themselves into a stupor and did God knows what to God knows whom in the parking lot.I will honestly lose it if have to look at Mike Pereira doing Zapruder-like breakdowns of whether a twerk was actually a twerk, or if he gets into the philosophy of what it means to be "prolonged." But, still, it will be fun to see the types of celebrations that made Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco household names not result in 15-yard penalties. I just have no confidence that the NFL won't ruin this eventually.