Michael Crabtree, the Raiders receiver, has been penalized twice this year by referees for what they perceive as a throat-slash. He says it's not. It's something Kenny Powers does on Eastbound & Down and it happens at the very end of the clip above. Crabtree also did the gesture against the Saints in the first game of the season, and head coach Jack Del Rio told reporters at the time that it was supposed to be a reference to a specific gesture Powers does after throwing a 101-MPH pitch.
It looks like Crabtree gets interrupted by his teammates mid-swipe, and the gesture gets altered as a result. The cameras then cut away so we don't see the whole thing, so maybe it's understandable for the refs to think it was a throat swipe but also, Jesus Christ, can you believe this paragraph that is underneath a GIF of a beefy be-mulleted man sniffing his fingers? What the hell is going on with the NFL?It gets more ridiculous, though. Rather than stop, Crabtree said he's going to persuade the refs of what he's actually doing—pulling your iPhone out of your shoe and showing the gif of Kenny Powers to assuage refs is the hot new TD celebration."Just talk to the ref before the game or something. I ain't going to make a big deal about it," Crabtree said, via the East Bay Times. "It's a misunderstanding. It's cool. They aren't perfect, now. I feel like they thought I was going to do it and they were ready, but I never did the throat slash. I'm sure they'll look at that and if I get in the end zone and celebrate, I won't get that flag."Sure. Obviously, we've all learned that the NFL is so willing to admit its past mistakes, change, and move on. Good luck to you.But seriously, why is this even being litigated? The NFL's draconian policing of celebrations this year is such a hilariously NFL thing to do, and this Kenny Powers thing has taken it to it's absurd, logical end point. The NFL has come to the conclusion that it must take away one of the fun parts of the sport and so keep football limited to the bone-crunching, concussion-causing, Darwinian business it is. GIFs are bad, touchdown celebrations are bad, and if you don't get it, it's because fans are too dumb to get our mismatched morals!It's not just that the NFL expects its players to just be drones with no personalities who don't ask questions. It's that it expects fans to be that way, too.
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