Officials' quick penalties no cause for celebration

Sporting News, The, Sept 20, 1999 by Mark Pesavento

Here we are at the turn of the century, and college football is about as fun as the `80s-era Soviet bloc.

The fun police have given college football's men in stripes the directive to ensure these games remain lifeless and no more exciting than they need to be.

Now, during the moments after a touchdown--once a time for celebration-coaches, players and fans live in fear of an official dropping his little yellow hanky, a 15-yard gesture that can quickly change a game's momentum.

The rule that is killing more fun than a midnight curfew on prom night is "excessive celebration," which the No Celebration Athletic Association sees as any possible maneuver from making a sensational play to having the gall to be happy about it. Considering the hyper-strict interpretation, perhaps the rule should be renamed simply "celebration."

There has been no more costly a celebration call this year than that against Notre Dame receiver Bobby Brown. Brown had just caught a 2-point conversion pass from Jarious Jackson to put the Irish up by three against Michigan with four minutes to play when he put his hands above his head--or, as Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times described it: "Brown reacted with a display from a preschool playground. He looked into the stands, stuck his thumbs in the holes on the sides of his helmet and taunted the crowd with a handwaving, moose-eared, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah gesture."

Brown was not taunting the crowd. He was not doing what Mariotti described. He was forming an Omega, the sign of his fraternity. The problem with the celebration penalty, of course, is that it's a judgment call, and the men most likely to be doing the judging may have no idea what they are seeing.

The Brown example is one in a sea of ridiculous celebration calls this season. Against Florida State, Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton got a 15-yarder for taking off his helmet as he run down the field after a 56-yard touchdown pass to Kelly Campbell. He barely had his chin strap off when the flag hit the ground. Meanwhile, Campbell had been thrown to the ground seven yards in the end zone, well after crossing the goal line that the referees missed.

Ask the NCAA, and it will tell you it doesn't mind players having fun and fans enjoying the game. Just as long as they do it with their hands at their sides, biting their cheeks, eyes facing forward.