Paul Brown simply wouldn’t understand the uproar.
The legendary coach and owner made his plea decades ago, when he demanded that one of his Cincinnati Bengals keep his composure. The player’s violation was that he celebrated a little too much after scoring a touchdown.
“Son, act like you’ve been there before,” was Brown’s response.
The NFL, which some have taken to calling the “No Fun League,” took a tiny step back in time Tuesday when it banned the dunking of a football over a goalpost, a move that was popularized by former Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez. If he comes out of retirement, he’ll have to act like he’s been in the end zone before.
NFL officials, meeting this week in Orlando, Fla., voted to penalize the dunking of the football over a goal post, which was popularized by Gonzalez when he was a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. The move made sense because Gonzalez also played basketball in college.
“The NFL says no more dunking over the goalpost,” Gonzalez wrote on his verified Twitter account. “This one I don’t understand. Looks like I got out just in time.”
New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham has carried on the tradition, but he displaced the goal post twice and appears to be the target of the ban.
Graham responded in a tweet, writing: “I guess I’ll have to lead the @nfl in penalties next year!” There also was a photo-shopped picture of a referee jumping to block the dunk. Graham later deleted the tweet. Graham slammed the ball so hard over the goal post at the Georgia Dome in November that the goal post had to be re-adjusted during a Thursday night game.
There was no explanation for the selective enforcement. The dunk is banned, but the Lambeau Leap was left in place.
Since 1997, Gonzalez slammed the ball over the crossbar after scoring a touchdown. In all, he performed the move more than 100 times — leaping the height of the Bank of America tower — and was imitated at least 100 times more by players across the league.
Gonzalez retired after last season and will be a football analyst for CBS on Sundays.
There already was a rule in place against using the football as a prop in celebrations. Penalizing dunks is an enforcement of the existing rule, as opposed to a new rule on the books.
“We grandfathered in some, the Lambeau Leap and things like that. But dunking will come out,” said Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, on Dan Patrick’s radio show. “Using the ball as a prop or any object as a prop, whether that’s the goal post, the crossbar, that will come out and that will be a foul next season.”
The NFL also may raise the uprights of the goal post five feet.
About the Author
