Excessive NFL Celebrations: Act like you’ve been there before

Photo Credit: Huffington Post

On Sunday afternoon, Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers faced off against the Tennessee Titans. After scoring a touchdown, Cam Newton performed an end-zone dance that offended a Tennessee local Rosemary Plorin and her daughter which she explained in a letter published in the Charlotte Observer.

I personally was not offended by his end-zone dance but I am disturbed by the overall trend of “showboating” in sports. I completely understand that the sports industry has become an entertainment industry with billions of dollars spent every year on television, advertising and marketing for the athletes, but at the end of the day, athletes actions have a direct impact on the children that watch them. So what I say to you professional athletes, “act like you have been there before!”

These absoulutely ludicrous and quite franklhy insane celebrations take away from the team dynamic that results in a touchdown. Except for very, very rare circumstances, to score a touchdown takes a complete team effort. Blockers need to hold their blocks, runners run their routes and quarterbacks effectively deliver the ball to receiver or runner.

But when the touchdown is scored, the camera focuses in on the player in the end zone, kissing his biceps or thrusting his hips at the crowd. What the camera fails to capture are the linemen peeling themselves off the dirt after having players tumble on them, just so their teammate can get to the end zone.

It is your job to score a touchdown and it takes an entire team effort to complete the play. If your are going to celebrate, do it with your teammates. High five them and give them credit for their effort. If they didn’t do their job, they would be picking you up off the ground every play after being squashed by a 300 pound lineman.
The football game is a team effort and I would like to see less of these individualistic celebrations. In other levels of the game, these celebrations result in penalties and in some cases in the NFL, fines. This focuses even more of the attention towards the individual and less on the team. Act like you’ve been there before, celebrate with your teammates and go back to the sideline and prepare yourself for the next scoring attempt.