The No Fun League

One huge concern and question I have is...has the NFL taken the fun out of the game of football?I believe the league has, and now is just punishing and fining players because they can in regards of touchdown celebrations. I will side with the NFL just briefly. I agree that when Joe horn pulled out a cell phone out of the goal post and acted like he was having a conversation that he should be fined. My reasoning for this is simply because he used another prop that isn't in the field of play and went out of his way before the game to put the phone in the goal post padding. I also agree that if players celebrate vulgarly or their acts are innapropiate for public then they should be fined. When players are just having good clean fun and being themselves after scoring a touchdown and the celebration is innocent they shouldn't be fined. The players already cannot simply spike a football after a big play unless it is a touchdown so now when they do score a touchdown the league is going to watch closely at every move they make so they can evaluate if the celebration deserves a fine or not. I think this is totally unfair to the professional football players and the fans. Today's sports is not just a sport it is a form of entertainment for all people. What the NFL fails to realize that by putting so many rules and restrictions on the players' celebrations the fans who either go to the games or view them on television are also getting punished in a way because they can't see the amusing or big end zone dances, and for some fans that's what they look forward to. When the Bengals opened up against the Ravens earlier this season all everyone talked about was what Chad johnson promised when he scored his first touchdown. The Monday Night Football ABC commentators discussed it multiple times before Chad finally did reach the endzone. It had pleny of media coverage a couple of days before the game even started and many football fans were wanting to watch this celebration. The celebration was a little disappinting and dragged out to the viewers because Chad had to run over to the sidelines just so he wouldn't get fined. To me this is ridiculous.



Terrell Owens was recently fined by the NFL for his endzone dance that mocked the latest controversy concerning the Patriots. Owens was fined $7,500 for his celebration. According to the Associated Press, Owens is very frustrated with the interpretations and understanding of the League's rules. He stated that he is not sure of what he can or cannot do after scoring a touchdown. He was asked if he would take his acts to the sidelines after scoring six and he said he guesses so, but then stated that next the NFL will put in a rule against that as well.The fact of the matter is players like T.O. cannot fully be thier amusing and entertaining selves on the football field because of little things like this. What does the NFL get out of fining a player worth millions a couple thousand dollars. The answer is nothing. To me incidents like this just show me how power hungry the NFL is. Due to the No Fun League cracking down so much lately on small things such as endzone celebrations the league may not be as entertaing and fun to watch as it used to be. The NFL is slowly taking out all of the fun in pro football. The NFL should and do have bigger things to worry about then clean amusing endzone celebrations.