Link: College football will be cracking down on celebrations before crossing goal line.

[WMack4Bama]

Forgive my chuckles. Your viewpoint sounds like you've reffed a few game in your time. However, my opinion remains unchanged. There's right and there's wrong. If it's holding it's holding. There shouldn't be a debate. And you, I, and the rest of the free world saw that Cory Webster slammed Keith to the ground to get that pick. He even hesitated on his run back because he was expecting it to be called back. The fact that the official swallowed his whistle doesn't mean it wasn't interference. It just means he didn't call it. Fast forward to 09 when Julio took a screen the distance for a TD. James Carpenter clearly blocked the guy in the back...with both hands no less. Refs just missed it or flat out didn't call it. Again, there's right and wrong. Nothing gray about any of those

They can have fun once they've crossed the goal-line and the referee has blown the whistle.

As for subjectivity, what call isn't up to a referee's interpretation?
Holding? Referees in conferences that like to throw the ball around give a much greater amount of latitude than SEC officials when it comes to holding.
Pass interference? Remember the LSU game a few years ago? Their DB grabbed our WR, slung him to the ground and then intercepted the pass along the sideline.
There are very few calls that a referee makes that don't involve some amount of subjectivity.

Make it reviewable and mandate that the officials must come to a unanimous decision that the player was indeed showboating. It's not like it's going to slow the game down because the play will have resulted in a touchdown, stopping the clock anyway. The thrust of the rule is to stop the flagrant showboating during plays. Therefore, coaches will make a point of telling kids to keep a lid on it until the whistle blows. I guarantee that if a kid does it and causes their team to lose points, he won't do it again.

 

[Saban14]

Let's just hope Tim Higgins doesn't ref football too.

 

[Rueben]

Mornic rule, at best.

 

[Black Warrior]

Good.
I've been saying they should do this for years. Treat it like a hold/block in the back and penalize from the spot. Coaches will not tolerate it if they start having touchdowns taken off the board..........

I agree. We'd probably be having a lot fewer of those jackass type plays that Dareus pulled in the NC by just flinging the ball away to no one in particular. He was in the end zone when he did it, so it might not have applied. Nevertheless we had to take a penalty on the kick off that could have put us in a big hole. Believe me, I love the guy and that play will be one of my all time favorites, but what he did in the endzone was BONEHEAD STUPID. CNS almost had a coronary while spitting up bits of lung.

 

[BradtheImpaler]

I just happen to think it should be all business until the whistle blows. I respect Coach Bryant and Coach Saban, and their attitude was/is that you take care of business and act like you've been there before. Think back a couple of months.
28-27.
Up 24-0, we started celebrating early.
Think about Trent's dropped pass and then think about what he admitted after the game. I'm not blaming him for the loss, and I have a great deal of respect for him for admitting that he dropped a sure touchdown because he started thinking about how he was going to celebrate.
I'm still a little ticked at George Teague for highstepping into the endzone against Miami and I still get chills when I think about Bill Curry grabbing Prince Wimbley's face mask to make sure he had his undivided attention when he was chewing him out for his antics after catching a pass against Miami in our first dance with Miami in the Big Easy.
I guess I'm just old-fashioned.
To me, every guy who calls attention to himself after a big play reminds me of Cameron Newton, and he makes me want to barf... twice.
Celebrate as a team after the whistle blows.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

Make it reviewable and mandate that the officials must come to a unanimous decision that the player was indeed showboating. It's not like it's going to slow the game down because the play will have resulted in a touchdown, stopping the clock anyway.

I agree. There are two officials who agree on field goals and two should have to agree on this call as well.

 

[thunderz7]

I like the rule.
Kids had FUN playing football in the 60's, 70's, and SOME even in the 80's.
These snot-nosed brats now can learn to do the same or sit.

Will refs make bad judgement calls? = yes some
Will SEC refs mess up more than most? = most likely

In the late 60's and early 70's we trash talked opponents, but we didn't posture and gesture and head-bob for the crowd to see, we just spoke it to the guy on the other side.
I see no defense for the actions I see every game now;
flame on = defend em if you want.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Moronic rule, at best.

This.

I swear, they won't be happy until it's flag football.

 

[crimsonaudio]

I agree. We'd probably be having a lot fewer of those jackass type plays that Dareus pulled in the NC by just flinging the ball away to no one in particular. He was in the end zone when he did it, so it might not have applied. Nevertheless we had to take a penalty on the kick off that could have put us in a big hole. Believe me, I love the guy and that play will be one of my all time favorites, but what he did in the endzone was BONEHEAD STUPID. CNS almost had a coronary while spitting up bits of lung.

No one would disagree that it was a boneheaded move, but this rule would have had zero impact on that play.

 

[crimsonaudio]

This rule is addressing the other team's 'feelings', not fairness of play or some sort of unfair advantage. I can't stand show-boaters, but I certainly don't want even more subjective rules that take the game out of the hands of the players and place it in the ref's hands...

Tell you what, if they want 'fairness', they'll allow all penalties to be challenged under a coach's review - this way, when a game-changing bad call is made there's at least some recourse by the team.

 

[Bamaro]

Good rule. Just play the game without any stupid showboating.

 

[CrimsonProf]

I just happen to think it should be all business until the whistle blows. I respect Coach Bryant and Coach Saban, and their attitude was/is that you take care of business and act like you've been there before. Think back a couple of months.
28-27.
Up 24-0, we started celebrating early.
Think about Trent's dropped pass and then think about what he admitted after the game. I'm not blaming him for the loss, and I have a great deal of respect for him for admitting that he dropped a sure touchdown because he started thinking about how he was going to celebrate.
I'm still a little ticked at George Teague for highstepping into the endzone against Miami and I still get chills when I think about Bill Curry grabbing Prince Wimbley's face mask to make sure he had his undivided attention when he was chewing him out for his antics after catching a pass against Miami in our first dance with Miami in the Big Easy.
I guess I'm just old-fashioned.
To me, every guy who calls attention to himself after a big play reminds me of Cameron Newton, and he makes me want to barf... twice.
Celebrate as a team after the whistle blows.

You're whistling past the graveyard. Some of you guys want our players to be just like "Bear's Boys." Well, as Slim Charles told Bodie in season four of the Wire, the thing about the old days is - they the old days.

I wish all players - ours included, mind you - were less brash and truth be told, ours are a pretty disciplined bunch and we have CNS and co. to thank for that. But the days of players behaving on the field with military discipline is mostly gone, and to try to reinstitute with rules enforced at the subjective discretion of officials is just asking for trouble.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I don't understand those who look down upon the posturing and gesturing yet have no problem with "trash talking". It seems that both fall under the same umbrella. :conf3:

 

[TheRealPokeChop]

stupid, stupid, stupid rule.

 

[TidefaninOS]

If it's FLAGRANT, then I don't have a problem with it. But like some have said, it's too subjective, IMO. Hell, I've seen some refs that would throw the flag if a player broke out into a grin before he crossed the goalline!

 

[Zorak]

If it's FLAGRANT, then I don't have a problem with it. But like some have said, it's too subjective, IMO. Hell, I've seen some refs that would throw the flag if a player broke out into a grin before he crossed the goalline!

Realizing it was after the score, just remember, Georgia got hosed not too long ago against LSU on an very subjective excessive celebration call. I've seen things far more excessive than that not called. I dislike showboating as much as the next guy, but jeez...if it doesn't impact the play itself (if the guy breaks into the open and has no one within 20 yards, for example) it shouldn't negate the score. Penalize the team on the ensuing kickoff.

We seem too concerned with hurting each other's feelings and making each other cry. There may be no crying in baseball, but apparently there is in football.

 

[REBELZED]

We seem too concerned with hurting each other's feelings and making each other cry. There may be no crying in baseball, but apparently there is in football.

Yep, and the ones who cry the loudest get to make the rules.

 

[GreatDanish]

I dislike showboating as much as the next guy, but jeez...if it doesn't impact the play itself (if the guy breaks into the open and has no one within 20 yards, for example) it shouldn't negate the score. Penalize the team on the ensuing kickoff.

This is key to me.
I'm fine with penalizing excessive celebrations. I'm not huge on it all the time, but I can buy it. But, the clock is on for Alabama to be down by 5 with 4 seconds to go, then Richardson catch a quick pass and break a run untouched to the end zone, with no defender near him for the win! But, he high stepped on the 2 yard line, and he is called down at the spot, and we lose by 5. Solution: don't high step, yeah, I get that. My solution: make the player ineligible for a half, if you have to. But, don't take points off the board for something that had no impact on the actual game. There was no advantage gained by high stepping.
Change the team's and player's names, but something like that is bound to happen before long. Again, this rule change is unlikely to have any relevance in a game like Alabama vs. Georgia State, unless Georgia State gets called, or one of our 5th string WRs gets called in the 4th quarter when we're up by 50. It will mostly be relevant in games like Alabama/LSU.
In the case above, sure, the player shouldn't high step, but don't take away the score.

 

[mikes12]

No one would disagree that it was a boneheaded move, but this rule would have had zero impact on that play.

I actually thought he was tossing the ball to an official. Made me mad when we got penalized.

 

[BradtheImpaler]

Agreed. It is beyond stupid to have an action that neither affects the game nor presents the possibility of an injury have such massive consequences. Frankly, I don't like the rule as it is, but it was better than this one. Imagine if this rule applied to field goal opportunities and Tennessee got another opportunity to kick after Cody took his helmet off? That didn't happen because even if the flag had been thrown, it was a live ball foul treated as a dead ball foul. Change that rule the same way this one changed, and Tennessee gets another kick. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Just because it's not a case of a player injuring another player, doesn't make the chance of injury any less real. If they continue to allow players to somersault into the endzone without any real consequences - and let's face it, in the mind of a 19-22 year old, 15 yards on the ensuing kick off is hardly a "consequence" - someone is going to get hurt, and probably very badly. All it takes is a mistimed, under-rotated leap to create a quadriplegic.