Last season the NFL saw its ratings fall by nine percent for the regular season and five percent for the playoffs. Some blamed the presidential election. Others blamed racists far-right conservatives angry that Colin Kaepernick was allowed to “disrespect the flag” by protesting the national anthem. The league’s oversaturation of games certainly did not help either.
To make matters worse, the league angered fans in St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland through a rigged game of musical franchises. Terrified that when the music stopped playing, there would be more seats than fans to fill them, the league decided to make end zone celebrations great again.
Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the NFL has relaxed its silly restrictions against end zone celebrations.
“We know that you love the spontaneous displays of emotion that come after a spectacular touchdown,” Goodell said in a statement. “And players have told us they want more freedom to be able to express themselves and celebrate their athletic achievements.”
Team celebrations like the old St. Louis Rams’ iconic Bob-n-Weave are no longer outlawed. Using a football as a prop will no longer cost players the price of a compact car. Celebrating on the ground will no longer be met with a fine and a frown.
Fines are still a possibility though. The league will still hit up players’ pockets for sexually explicit celebrations, such as Antonio Brown’s twerking, or anything that mimics weapons or violence.
Since 2006, the league cracked down on touchdown dances. In 2016, the league collected over $310,000 in celebration fouls.
After a decade of telling players they needed to “act like they’ve been there before,” the NFL is now hoping players can dance the league their way back onto television sets around the world.
One coach has already gone full-curmudgeon against the rule change. Marvin Lewis, of the Cincinnati Bengals, is not a fan of the rollback.
“We had a good standard, and the whole standard’s always been,” Lewis said.  “You want to teach people how to play the game the correct way and go about it the correct way. That’s not a very good example for young people.”Â
I’m a fan of Lewis, but he’s wrong on this issue. Football is a sport. It’s a game. It’s entertainment. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a football player, who works extremely hard at his craft, to show emotion when he makes a remarkable play. Celebration is a natural human reaction to achievement.
While football is a team game, its popularity is contingent upon star players. From Ickey Woods’ Ickey Shuffle, to Deion Sanders’ Prime Time dance to Terrell Owens’ star celebration to Cam Newton’s Dab, creativity has been long-embraced by NFL fans.
Will some celebrations be annoying and unnecessarily over-the-top? Sure. Those celebrations will be appropriately mocked or ignored on social media. However, fining a player $9,000-$10,000 for being happy has always been completely unnecessary.
OBJ signs huge Nike deal
One player who will immediately benefit from the celebration rule change is Odell Beckham Jr.,one of the league’s most popular and flamboyant stars.
Beckham re-signed with Nike for five years for an estimated $29 million, according to Nick DePaula of NiceKicks.com. The deal is worth double the amount Nike has had with any other NFL player.
With Nike, Beckham is expected to become a “brand icon,” meaning he’ll be featured in more than just football-related commercials and events. You can bet your bottom dollar that Nike will be ecstatic to see OBJ getting his groove on in the end zone.
Another exciting fight
The sport of boxing continues to ride a wave of momentum with exciting fights with a stellar welterweight championship bout this weekend. IBF World Welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1-0, 25 KO) will defend his title against Errol Spence Jr. (21-0-0, 18 KO).
Brook is coming off the first loss of his career. The English fighter ventured up to middleweight to face-off against “GGG” Gennady Golovkin last September. Brook gave a good showing, considering he was fighting 13 pounds above his natural fighting weight, but was stopped by the hard-hitting Golovkin in the fifth round.
In the fight, Brook suffered a broken orbital bone. His title defense against Spence will be his first bout since the defeat and the surgery to repair his eye.
I believe Brook is a slightly better fighter than Spence. He’s tough and slightly more fluid than the Texas native. However, the champion has too many questions going into this fight to be confident in a victory. He’s coming off surgery, his first defeat and an extended layoff. He’s also coming back down to 147-pounds from 160-pounds.
It’s hard to forget Roy Jones Jr.’s less-than-stellar performance against Antonio Tarver during their first fight in 2003. Jones Jr. had to drop 18 pounds after he defeated John Ruiz for the heavyweight title.
Spence is an excellent body puncher, meaning if there are any issues with Brook’s fitness, Spence will find and exploit them. I still think it’s a close fight, but my official pick is that the fresher Spence wins via majority decision in Brook’s backyard.
The fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing on Saturday, May 17 at 4:15 PM CST.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunkÂ
