If you were scrolling Twitter at any point Sunday, you probably noticed the phrase “No Fun League” trending, and for good reason as the NFL’s laughable crusade against taunting has gotten out of hand. The beauty of football, and why it resonates with fans from all walks of life, is its personality. But you’d never know it by the way the game is officiated now, discouraging emotional displays of any kind, from trash talking to actions as tame as clapping after a good play.
That’s not hyperbole—Bears safety Tashaun Gipson was literally flagged for clapping Sunday against Cincinnati. Players aren’t being let off with just a slap on the wrist, either. A personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct can easily swing a game, as it almost did Sunday when the Seahawks ceded 15 yards and an automatic first down (the result of D.J. Reed leaping to his feet after breaking up a pass intended for A.J. Brown) to Tennessee with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
You’d think the NFL would have more important things to worry about than policing celebrations, but instead the league has made taunting a “point of emphasis,” and, predictably, players are none too happy about it. The NFLPA tweeted this in response to Sunday’s debacle, reiterating its stance that players should have more input on rule changes including the league’s unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive crackdown on taunting.
“The majority of fans feel that this is a bad idea—and so do the majority of players,” offensive lineman JC Tretter of the Browns, who serves as president of the Players Association, expressed earlier this month. “Fans enjoy the intensity and the raw emotion that our players show on the field; and the overwhelming majority of the time, players understand the line between that emotion and bad sportsmanship.”
Tretter also lamented that players are essentially powerless to stop the league from enforcing whatever rules it wants, noting that 10 of the 11 voters on the NFL’s Competition Committee are chosen by commissioner Roger Goodell. "This year, don’t blame the players who show too much emotion, and cut the refs a break for doing their jobs. Blame the people who push for rules like this time and time again,” said Tretter, who compared the league’s current predicament to a controversy that arose in 2006 when touchdown celebrations were effectively banned, only to return years later. “If fans want to see more emotion, I encourage them to continue to voice that to the league.”
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