Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
November 12, 2009, Washington Post

Celebrating can be too much of a good thing

Sports have lots of celebrations. Players celebrate touchdowns, goals and great plays. But when does celebrating become too much celebrating?

Recently, T.J. Peeler, a running back for Broad Run High School in Virginia, was penalized and suspended for a game for doing a chest bump after scoring a touchdown. Peeler was later reinstated and allowed to play in his next game.

Other local high school players have drawn penalties for pointing to the sky after making a big play. I guess the officials thought pointing to the sky violated the rule in high school football that prohibits "any delayed, excessive or prolonged act by which a player attempts to focus attention on himself."

There are new rules in college basketball this year to cut down on the showboating that takes place on the court. The new rule says, "Taunting, baiting, ridiculing, finger-pointing, trash talking or inappropriate gestures . . . are unacceptable forms of unsportsmanlike behavior."

I am usually in favor of rules that cut down on players' showing off during the game. There are too many players, especially in the pros, who celebrate every play. They set a bad example for kids who play sports. Good sports never do anything to make other players feel bad.

But celebrating a touchdown with a chest bump or by pointing to the sky doesn't seem too bad to me. It's tough to tell the difference between a player who is truly excited and one who is making fun of an opponent.

Still, there are a couple of rules I would like to see leagues and coaches enforce to cut down on celebrations.

The first is: No celebrating if your team is behind. Football and basketball are team sports, so why celebrate when your team is losing?

Take last week's Redskins game against the Falcons. The Redskins stunk it up in the first half and were behind, 24-3. To their credit, they came back. Then Redskins safety LaRon Landry, who had spent most of the game missing tackles, made a good play to stop the Falcons short of a first down.

So what did Landry do? He crossed his arms and strutted up the field like he was a big deal. LaRon, look at the scoreboard. Your team is still losing. Concentrate on tackling instead of celebrating.

The second rule is: Don't celebrate if your team is way ahead. If your team has the game locked up, play it cool. The only thing your celebrating will do is make the other team's players feel worse.

Everyone, pros and kids, should concentrate on playing hard and fair, instead of showing off. If they did, that would be something to celebrate.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is the author of such kids' books as "Touchdown Trouble" and "Soccer Team Upset."

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