Tuesday, December 19, 2017

NFL TD Celebrations

When the NFL relaxed its touchdown celebration rules over the offseason, no longer penalizing a player 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for any sort of post-TD expression, we knew that the players were going to get creative.  It took a little while, but that's exactly what we've seen.  And they keep getting more and more fun.  It's like they're trying to one-up each other week after week.  And it's been great!

Sure, there have been the tasteless displays, such as Odell Beckham, Jr., pretending to pee on the field (for which he was promptly fined $12,500.  And Ezekiel Elliott's jumping into the Salvation Army bin, while cool, would still be grounds for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  But, for the most part, what we've seen has been great.  And certain teams are definitely better at end zone celebrations than others.

Take the Minnesota Vikings.  They're responsible for two of the best TD celebrations we've seen all season.  The first was in their game against the Lions on Thanksgiving when, naturally, they all sat down to Thanksgiving dinner.


Believe it or not, that was only Minnesota's second-best TD celebration this season.  The best one came during a Monday night game in Chicago, where they followed a touchdown with a game of everyone's schoolyard favorite...Duck, Duck, Goose (complete with offensive linemen!).


Don't think the Vikings are the only creative team, though.  They're not even the only creative team in the NFC North.  The Packers were responsible for a pair of solid Olympic-themed celebrations.  They channeled their inner Jamaican bobsled team against the Cowboys and celebrated Aaron Rodgers' return against the Panthers by power walking.



There's something about the NFC North and touchdown celebrations.  Because the Lions are pretty good at them, too.  We've seen Detroit give curling a try (and fail miserably), and Golden Tate gave us one of the beast early-season celebrations with his game of table tennis.

Then there's the Atlanta Falcons.  The defending NFC champs have been responsible for a couple good ones.  The first was Devonte Freeman's free throw against the Packers.  The other was Master of All Things Julio Jones showing off his fencing prowess.

Over in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been the standard bearers.  They played a lively game of hide and seek against the Bengals...

...and reenacted a move straight out of WWE in the rematch with Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs gave us a potato sack race earlier in the season...


...then topped it with a NASCAR pit stop against the Chargers on Saturday night.


Finally, the best touchdown celebration of the season, courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles.  It was in October, so a baseball-themed celebration made total sense.  And they completely hit it out of the park with their home run against the Cardinals in Week 5.


I'm sure there are plenty of other good ones that I missed.  But one thing is for sure.  The NFL, for all of its missteps over the last 18 months, nailed this one.  They got it totally right.  "NFL" doesn't stand for "No Fun League" anymore.  At least not when it comes to touchdown celebrations.

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