Is excessive celebration based on race?

Is Celebration Penalties based on race?

I wrote a blog last year about the celebration penalties in college football, and how they really take a huge part of the pageantry of college football out based on the judgment of an official. Last week during the LSU/Georgia game, we see this rear it’s ugly head:

As many of you know, the big battle between LSU and Georgia was a major game to decide the superior teams of the SEC. But in a crucial part of the game, Georgia scores a touchdown and in the midst of the exuberance, one of the officials threw a flag for “excessive celebration”.

The penalty gave LSU an extra 15 yards and helped immensely in them making the final drive to score…and win the game.

A couple of days later, the SEC reviews the penalty and finds out that there was no penalty at all…oops. Sorry about losing that game Georgia, but we made a boo-boo.

Yesterday while I am watching “Around the Horn” on ESPN, they raised the question about whether this was a big deal or not. And folks, pay close attention to what I am about to say…

The question of excessive celebration was asked to three members of the media, two was Caucasian, one was African American. The African American journalist said that it DID make a difference because it cost a team a game and the entire idea of excessive celebration was a punishment to students who work hard and want to enjoy as much of their hard work as the fans do in watching it.

The two Caucasian journalists said that it did NOT make a difference, because Georgia was know (LAST YEAR!) to be excessive, and that these players need to learn how to be more calm and professional when they are on the field of play.

This was split right down race lines.

The issue of “excessive celebrations” has been in issue for years, which is ironic because some of the most memorable clips of NCAA football are those where there is celebration…how many of you remember the Desmond Howard pose…

Yeah, thought so.

But in the years I have been watching college football, I have noticed a kinda disturbing trend when it comes to these penalties…it does seem to be race related. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to pick apart the LSU win, folks, I have a LSU hat here in my house that I wear because I was born in New Orleans…I am a Saints fan for life and anything out of Louisiana. So I LIKE LSU, but the game of college football has seemed to have gotten more about “taming” rather than playing.

Is celebration penalties based on race or discrimination? I think so, but before I get into that, let’s be clear about what I mean about “excessive celebration”.

The word “excessive” by my dictionary, means, “greater than what is normal or necessary”. So in some form we can say that an excessive celebration penalty is based on a player that celebrates above what is normal or necessary. But now let’s also define “celebration”:

“To do something to show that a day or event is important; to honor with festivities; to make merry on such an occasion”

That’s from my Oxford American Dictionary, I didn’t make that up.

So in some essence, we can say that an excessive celebration is when an athlete is too merry, or giving too much honor for a certain event….but folks what this ALSO says is that they ARE in fact allowed to do so.

The penalty isn’t for ANY celebration, it’s for EXCESSIVE. But this is where the problem lies…who determines what is excessive? Who determines that what a player does is greater than normal or necessary? What is the norm of celebrations, and who decides that?

What is normal to you might not be normal to me, what you do to celebrate or show honor or make merry might not be what I do. It might be more, it might be less. It is purely based on personal judgment. This is the same that can be said for referees in college football. They are not necessarily making the RIGHT call, they are making a personal call…there is a major difference.

Yet having said that, we can come so some conclusion to what could be excessive. If I run in the end zone and did a back flip, THAT can be considered excessive. If I ran in the end zone and then tried to do a Thriller video, then THAT can be considered excessive.

(R.I.P MJ)

Any knowledgeable fan in college football can have a decent idea of what is celebratory, and what is too much. But often times the officials are there to punish these players for scoring for their team.

What really irks me off is when a guy runs into the end zone, scores a touchdown, and even before his teammates get to him, the ref is all in his face trying to get him off the field. I personally think that is unfair because remember folks, the penalty is for EXCESSIVE celebration… not simply celebration. Players are allowed to show joy and enthusiasm on the field, especially when they do something good. For a ref to get all in his grill is an attempt to prevent him from even celebrating… that is NOT their job.

So there has to be some even ground where a player can do something to show his joy and honor for what has been done. I mean, how can a referee sit there, at a Georgia home game, with THOUSANDS of Georgia fans rooting for their team, and a guy managed to get in the end zone during a crucial time of a major game, and get flagged for what?

Nothing.

And the fact that there is no review of such a judgment call, it has cost Georgia the game, and likely a shot at the BCS Championship. Don’t tell me that LSU would have scored anyway, we don’t know that, but what we DO know is that they were given an extra 15 yards to work with.

To me, the refs threw that flag in a prejudiced motion, pre-judging the actions of the players, and were to damned quick to flag something that never happened. This is based purely on the beliefs of those refs which were Caucasian.

It comes back to race.

Even now in 2009, we as Americans try to live together and our cultures have mixed with one another. Music, entertainment, sports, religion, all these things we can enjoy and participate with in unison. But in our personal lives, there are still things we separate as what we deem is “right” and what is not right.

And one of the most controversial subjects in sports is the celebration penalties, because it is based squarely on race. For the most part, we see African American receivers and backs scoring touchdowns, and for the most part, the refs are Caucasian.

So what we have happening is older Caucasian “judges” making a judgment on whether an African American is celebrating too much. And because the cultures of an older white guy and a younger black guy are light years apart, it seems easier for the ref to create the illusion that the younger guy is being too riotous.

But that’s ONLY an opinion, one the NCAA sadly sides with. Look where it got Georgia…an unfair loss that the SEC can only hide behind a cheap apology like a coward.

Oh by the way, this from a conference that in their history has only had ONE African American head coach, and I personally believe they only did that to get the…excuse the saying, monkey off their back.

Get with the 21st century SEC!

And let us also add that Georgia last year had not one, but two separate celebration penalties called for a touchdown and had all the players run on the field. Ok, I get that, and the penalty was partly justified, but was there any attempt to punish the team this year for what happened last year?

Woody Paige on “Around The Horn” tried to validate it because it was something Georgia did last year…what the hell is that about? That is a stupid argument based on what happened LAST YEAR. Why is Woody Paige implying that Georgia somehow deserved a penalty for what happened a year ago? That had nothing to do with last week’s game, and it makes it even more wicked that somebody felt that Georgia deserved more punishment, even after they got two penalties stacked on one another from that game.

It is absolutely amazing what people say about the excessive celebration penalties, because to me there often times is no validation. Again, there are many reasons to throw the penalty, like if a guy takes off his helmet, or if he dances in the end zone. Ok, I get that, but where do you draw the line on what is acceptable and what is not?

You notice that no player ever got flagged for kneeling down to pray after a score… hey, that is celebration. I guarantee you if an ref that does not believe in God threw a flag, THEN everybody would start talking about what is excessive.

I said before in another blog that even guys who call the games show their true colors. One of the guys I don’t like listening to is Mike Patrick of ESPN. I noticed that when such celebration penalties come out during a game he is calling, he makes it a point to say that the player is “stupid”. He likes to say, “it’s just plain stupid”. I have never once heard him defend the possibility that the refs might have prejudged the athlete.

Mark Jones is the opposite. I love listening to him on the games on ESPN because he is very quick to point out that this is a GAME, and these are KIDS and they have every right to enjoy the fruits of their works. He has criticized the officials at times when they make a excessive celebration penalty that is overboard. I am not saying that he argues every call, but he had a good idea of what is excessive and what is not.

Mike Patrick, does not.

And folks, this isn’t just along race lines either. It’s not like every African American commentator criticizes these penalties, while every Caucasian supports it. There are many exceptions, but more times than not, it seems that there is a clear generation and racial gap between older non-athletic Caucasians and younger African American college football players.

And it kills me when I hear them talk about how more athletes ought to act like Barry Sanders. I mean, when he scored, all he did was give the ball to the official and go back to his sideline. He is professional and does what he is expected to do.

But when you take one person and try to make everybody be like him, you are falsely applying a prejudice to every person, when you know no two people are alike. Barry Sanders is one of the best running backs of all time, to be sure….but Emmitt Smith IS the greatest of all time, and we have seen him do some celebrations when he scored.

How many of you remember the 49ers/Cowboys game when Terrell Owens mocked the Cowboys by putting the ball on the center star…what did Emmitt Smith do when HE scored….

The game of football is filled with a lot of aggression, and it takes superior talent going through hard core training to be the best. Those students have to manage an academic profile while playing at the highest level. They go through practices that no ref or media member could endure. The do it for the love for the sport, and for the glory and honor of their team and university.

So when they get on that field, with anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 in that stadium, and millions watching on tv, they are dead set to give it their all… against a team dead set to stop them in their tracks. But IF that person is able to get in that end zone, especially in the 4th quarter of a home game, with the fans going nuts in a score that could give them a win, it is absolutely natural to celebrate, because that is part of college football.

But when some idiot ref tosses a flag based on what he THINKS he knows, it destroys all the celebration for the player, team, and fans, and cheats the tv audience out of a valid game. There is no two ways about this folks, the refs destroyed Georgia’s game, and the SEC won’t do anything about it…cowards.

All this on the foundation that many of these calls are indeed racially based. I say again, there are times where a guy can go overboard, and when he does, then you flag him. But to make a snap decision from an older Caucasian ref to decide if an African American is “hamming it up” is too judgmental, and usually results in a bad call. But sadly the NCAA says that these opinions by the refs are not reviewed for change…cowards.

It reminds me of the Hawaii team, and how their culture has been virtually eliminated from college sports because the NCAA does not like the way they celebrate. The Hawaiian culture is a very celebratory culture, and you see that in how they play. I absolutely LOVED watching them play, because you get to see the true nature of sports and all the pageantry that goes with it. But because it is a culture that the Caucasian refs and the NCAA does not understand, they feel that it is not good “sportsmanship”.

Last year I made a blog about a Duke game where one of their players dove in the end zone and was flagged for excessive celebration. I saw that game and I agreed that yes, it was excessive. But I also saw how not one, but two of the Duke coaches lit into that guy as if he stole their mother’s Christmas gift. To me, that was foolish for the coaches because come on, when was the LAST time Duke fans had a chance to celebrate? Yeah the kid made a mistake, but don’t crucify him for that, you need every edge you can get to inspire your team. Perhaps that’s why Duke football is where is it now…on the bottom.

And I remember joking with my brother about it last year and I said, “I bet you, if Duke is on tv, I guarantee you that one of the highlights they will show in the commercial will be that guy diving in the end zone”. And sure enough, it was.

The irony of how the NCAA tries to condemn celebrations, but corporate America such as CBS, ESPN, FOX and all the other media will use that very penalty to sell the college football product.

To me, all those commercials the NCAA show about “Sportmanship” is garbage. There is a level of honor that is supposed to be shown by players and fans, but the way the NCAA tries to sell it is that celebrations are not allowed. Ironic because it is the pageantry and celebrations of college football that make it a BILLION dollar business, and why businesses can’t stop creating new bowls to jump in….Yankee Bowl? What’s up with that?

All this plays on these decisions that out-of touch refs make when a young student makes a touchdown. I say again, there are times where a flag needs to be thrown, I get that, but there are also times when these guys make foolish snap judgments based on what they don’t like. How much longer before they outlaw the chest thump? How much longer before they outlaw the “hi-five”? I mean, that’s a coordinated move, isn’t it? It takes two to do it, right?

Sadly I think it may be years, or even decades, before there is any real change in the excessive celebration penalty. If you ever get the chance, watch these games and look at the factors that seem to imply that this could be a race issue. Most times the refs making these calls are indeed Caucasian. I said MOST, not all. Most times these calls are on African American athletes. I said MOST, not all, there are exceptions.

If you ever watch some of the historical black college games (which are great too), notice how they make such calls. Yes, they DO make excessive celebration calls, but when they make them, there is no question about it. You KNOW that the player was out of line when he did it. But in other college games, sometimes you have to wonder.

So sadly, Georgia loses a game because the refs made a stupid call, one likely racially based, certainly one based on pre-judgement…or prejudice. And it does not surprise me that the SEC, which are at the back of equal opportunity, would hid behind their desks and say “sorry for that bad call, but we can’t do anything about it”…

Sounds like some other bad apologies our country has made in the past…