Fining players for emotions

How the dreaded and entertaining taunting and excessive celebration rules have changed the 2021 season

By: Erica Bouska

Even if you aren’t an Iowa State or Oklahoma State football fan, two weeks ago you might’ve seen what radio commentators called “the worst call in NCAA history.”

Iowa State receiver Xavier Hutchinson ran 54 yards for a touchdown and then marched to the sideline with a 15-yard penalty.

His offense? Excessively celebrating his touchdown. His actions? Slowing his pace as he reached the end zone.

“Oh, come on. That is horrible!” exclaimed the commentator while watching the replay. Commentators and fans across the country have echoed this sentiment throughout the 2021 season in collegiate and professional football. Both the NCAA and the NFL upped their standards on taunting and excessive celebration this year. 

But what, if anything, has changed? And it is really as bad as it seems?

Taunting and excessive celebration have always been tricky rules in sports. For the most part, it comes down to the refs’ feelings on whether the actions went past sportsmanlike conduct. 

As far as taunting goes, the NCAA and NFL loosely define it as encouraging a player on the other team to act out. An excessive celebration follows about the same standards, but it has more specificities attached to it, like disallowing props.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to what a ref sees or hears on the field, and that’s when fans tend to get picky. Some of the biggest reactions came after the host of the “MySportsUpdate” podcast posted a supercut of six taunting fouls from the second week of the NFL season. 

A USA Today reporter said that it was an “absolute mess” and linked tweets backing up his opinion. Another USA Today reporter, Mike Freeman, pointed out that in the compilation, only Black players had been called for taunting. “This is about control,” he tweeted. “Specifically, and mostly, control of Black bodies.”

The crackdown started at the Super Bowl last year when former Gopher Antoine Winfield Jr. taunted a Kansas City player, Tyreek Hill, with Hill’s signature celebration peace sign. Winfield was fined $7,815. Hill was not fined for using the same gesture toward Winfield earlier that year.

Winfield reportedly told Sports Illustrated it was money well spent.

The NCAA rules have always been more strict, and a reporter from Slate said, “The NCAA’s preferred celebration has always been for a player to hand the ball to the referee, shake hands with each of his teammates, and then write a gracious handwritten note to the opposing head coach in which he thanks his team for being such worthy competitors.”

This reporter went on to say that he gets it because the NCAA has an image of respect to uphold. The NFL commission cited a similar sentiment and said they had seen too many actions not in the spirit or intent of football.

But football is an emotional game. Players spend years building up their skills, and if they’re lucky, they get to show them off on national TV. I’m sure that more than one player has wanted to be in Winfield’s shoes. 

On the flip side, nobody wants to see football turn nasty. Swearing, making obscene gestures, or starting fights—which happened with the New York Giants—are all covered under taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct rules.

The leagues can’t get rid of the penalty, but no one wants to see another player like Hutchinson saying that he let the team down. So what can be done? Hopefully, unlike most problems, it just goes away.

In 2019, the NFL increased its emphasis on holding calls, similar to what they’re doing with taunting and excessive celebration. The first few weeks of the season saw an exorbitant number of holding calls, but after an adjustment period, it dialed back to an acceptable level.

Even if NFL fans say it makes the NFL the “No Fun League,” there’s not much that can be done about it. And in reality, as a FOX Sports article pointed out, it’s more of a mindset change than a real rule. 

“All the NFL is really doing is trying to plant the seed now, hoping that when the inevitable celebration comes, the enthusiasm will be directed into a dance, a yell to the heavens, a group selfie or a strut, rather than something squarely aimed at making the player on the wrong end of the play look stupid.”

It’s a fair note, and maybe come next NFL season, this will be the mindset. But in the NCAA, it’s just something to learn from, as Iowa State Head Coach Matt Campbell said after the game.

Iowa State did win, and Hutchinson got sweet revenge by scoring a touchdown later in the game. But the occasional “worst call in the history of the NCAA” is unfortunately not preventable. 

Hutchinson at least took it in stride and said he’d take it after the clip went viral. “I’m glad that we were able to be on this platform. I hope really people just took away that we are a (four) quarter team,” he said. “You’re going to get the best out of us. We’re not going to go down without a fight.”