Crossing Broad
Rob Maaddi at the The Associated Press:
The NFL wants players to have fun within the rules.
That’s why the league will be emphasizing sportsmanship and cracking down on violent and sexually suggestive gestures this season.
“Unsportsmanlike gestures like simulating or either shooting a gun or brandishing a gun, or inappropriate gestures like a throat slash, or unfortunate sexual gestures, those were up 133% so that is a point of emphasis,” NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson said Thursday. “The officials have made it a point of emphasis to the clubs. It’s just one of those areas that the league wants to work actively on. There are plenty of ways for players to be able to celebrate, and they come up with some very unique and often entertaining ways so we want them to focus on those and not the inappropriate areas.”
The NFL sent to teams a corresponding video, with league executive and former Eagle Troy Vincent saying this:
This is why Howie Roseman traded CJGJ for pennies, huh? That Howie is always three steps ahead of the competition. Can’t have CJGJ popping off every series when the NFL has the eye in the sky looking to make an example out of a player showing bad sportsmanship. There’s no room for that in the pure game of football that we love. Take your potty mouth to the CFL if you want to talk like a sailor. You want to step over a guy after making a big play? That might work in the NBA, but not in a gentleman’s game like football. Leave your fake gun celebrations and throat slashes at home.
I already know what’s going to happen. Officials are going to go into overkill early in the season. There will be a backbreaking taunting penalty that gets called in a game on national television, the clip will go viral, and the league will back off. We’ve seen this before. The NFL always has an emphasis on something going into the season. The hip drop tackle was last year’s bugaboo and surprisingly there wasn’t one called in Week 1 and not many I can remember throughout the year. Then there are cases like 2022, when the NFL wanted refs to watch out more for illegal contact after it dropped significantly the year before. Illegal contact penalties doubled from 28 to 67 penalties year-over-year. Roughing the passer also got out of control a couple years back and the league emphasized dialing it back a season later, which it did. We can argue about what’s right and wrong and good for football until we’re blue in the face. At least penalties like illegal contact and roughing the passer are during a play. Everyone knows the NFL wants to open up the passing game and protect QBs, but no one sitting at home actually cares if a cornerback is taunting a receiver after getting a big third down stop. The NFL can’t get out of its...
