Category Archives: Football

College Football Celebration Rule a Joke?

UGA Celebration

So first off, this is my first post of the new term, so I’d like to welcome anyone and everyone who has not yet visited the blog.

Now to the topic at hand. I was driving between Boston and Amherst, MA at about 6AM (Don’t ask why) and of course I have nothing better to do than listen to Mike and Mike on ESPN radio. I didn’t really know the results of college football that weekend, other than the fact that my undergrad Alma Mater the University of Tennessee had again lost…I’m thinking it’s gonna be a long season, but no comments on that. I then heard about the LSU-Georgia game, which LSU apparently won in a killer finish, which is great because it sets up an amazing matchup this weekend between LSU and Florida. Now normally I couldn’t say anything nice about LSU or UGA because I grew up to…”strongly dislike” anyone but Tennessee, and maybe Boise State because how can you not like them. But in this case I think UGA got the bad end of a call that might have altered their game. In my car, I listen to a 2-minute Mike Golic rant about the celebration rule in college football which is what I am thinking about today.

Now it really doesn’t matter what kind of celebration it was, and in this case it was nothing more than the guys on the field running and jumping up with the receiver who caught the ball (Not the entire team celebration that Georgia pulled last year againast Florida, which was more taunting than celebrating). The point of this whole thing is WHY IN THE WORLD CAN COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYERS NOT CELEBRATE? These guys are killing each other out there and for them to celebrate during a tight game that means sooo much should be allowed without question. What is the whole point of the celebration penalty? It is an unsportsmanlike conduct issue and the fact is that CELEBRATING IS NOT UNSPORTSMANLIKE. On the contrary, the most memorable times in sport are celebrations of the big moments which mean something. The argument I hear is that celebrating is taunting…Are you Kidding Me? Taunting is absolutely different. It is targeted at the other team or player, and celebrations are not.  I saw a receiver make an amazing catch, get hugged by his teammates and then point up to the fans as if to say, “Get Up and Get Loud”. At no point did the player even look at the other team. I understand taunting as a penalty, but give me a break, celebrating isn’t even the saem thing. Next thing you know the NCAA will be saying you can’t make a play over 20 yards because it might hurt the feelings of the other team.

At this point the NCAA needs to take this penalty out of college football all together or a game that might make or break national championships hopes could be altered by college kids celebrating a score.