Zay Flowers went through a rollercoaster of emotions during Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
The rookie wide receiver was called for taunting after a 54-yard catch to move Baltimore into the red zone late in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs. After the Ravens regained 14 of the 15 yards Flowers was penalized, the wideout fumbled as he stretched out for the goal line. He then injured his hand punching a bench in frustration on the sideline.
A touchdown would’ve made it a three-point game. Instead, the Chiefs were able to run four minutes off the clock with their 17-7 lead en route to the 17-10 win.
Danny Parkins and Andrew Fillipponi of the Audacy original podcast “1st & Pod” discussed the taunting with Parkins ranting about why that shouldn’t be a penalty in professional sports.
“Taunting should not be a penalty in professional sports,” Parkins said (31:20 in player above). “Unsportsmanlike conduct should be a penalty for spitting in someone’s face, if you want to say throwing a ball at somebody, something like that, OK, fine. Unnecessary roughness should be a penalty for fighting.”
Parkins acknowledged that yes, because taunting is a penalty, Flowers should’ve been penalized. But there may be a better way for the NFL to go about it.
“‘Oh, if you take out taunting there’s just going to be a bunch of fights after every play.’ No, you can’t fight because that would be unnecessary roughness,” he continued. “Taunting is trash talking. That’s what taunting is. These are pros. This isn’t Little League. This isn’t AYSO soccer. This isn’t The Y. This isn’t sportsmanship and you have to teach your kids and athletes are role models. Stop.”
Perhaps there should be some sort of restriction on taunting, especially if it becomes physical, but trash talk is a gray area.
“AFC Championship Game, guy catches a 40-yard pass and he can’t talk a little junk?” Parkins said. “And, by the way, ball don’t lie, Sneed gets taunted and then Sneed’s the one who punches the ball out on Flowers when he’s diving to the end zone. Sneed is fine. He’s fine. He doesn’t need you to throw a flag to protect his delicate sensibilities. It’s so stupid that he’s got 50- and 60-year old men legislating language of 24-year-old athletes. It’s idiotic.”
According to NFLPenalties.com, there was a spike in taunting penalties with 55 in 2021 before that dropped down to 21 last year and just 17 this season.
“I feel like it’s really the referees, for the most part, let that stuff go and they arbitrarily decide when it goes beyond the pale of they need to censor the behavior of an NFL player with how they look at a guy or stare down a guy or stand over a guy,” Fillipponi replied.
“Or spin a ball. They’re like ‘He spun the ball in his direction,’” Parkins interjected. “Oh, won’t somebody please think of the children!”
“It’s so inconsistent. I got killed on Twitter, but I really believe this, if Travis Kelce did that to Kyle Hamilton I don’t think they throw the flag at all,” Fillipponi said. “I think some guys get afforded that right, especially veterans and star players.”
There is certainly a level of respect towards veterans and what some view as superstar treatment when it comes to penalties.
“Flowers is a rookie, they know that, I think that’s why they felt comfortable doing it to him. If Jackson has a scramble and then does that to the guy that tackles him I don’t think they throw the flag there either,” Fillipponi continued. “That’s one of my big gripes with it. It is a stupid rule. The refs have enough things on their minds, they shouldn’t have to worry about that part of it either.”