NFL strengthens excessive celebration and unnecessary roughness rules

The NFL is more strictly enforcing rules concerning unnecessary roughness and excessive celebration. The new rules have caused referees to make more excessive celebration calls that have stirred an outcry from the NFL fanbase.

“It is the player’s right to celebrate and this causes fans to get involved in the game,” junior Dylan Weingarden said. “It is about enjoying what you do and celebrations allow for this.”

An example of these excessive celebration penalties was seen on Monday night by Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. Brown who scored a touchdown and proceeded to twerk in the endzone. The referees flagged him on the play for excessive celebration.  

This caused an uproar on social media but it is celebrations like this that the NFL finds unnecessary. When a player does something well in a game, many believe that it is the player’s right to be able to celebrate. Even though many believe this, the NFL is trying to limit these excessive celebration penalties for their inappropriate nature.

For unnecessary roughness penalties, the NFL enacted a new rule that states when a player receives two unnecessary penalties, he will be suspended from the game. This causes referees to be more methodical when giving out these penalties. Although some have argued that the protection of players is a necessity.

“The refs need to give penalties because the protection of players should be a top priority,” freshman Eli Graff said.

Even though protecting players matters, some argue that ejection should not be the solution, believing everyone makes mistakes and football is already an aggressive sport. NFL players must now wait and see how these two rules will further affect the game.