Miami Dolphin penalized for post-TD putting celebration

I agree, with all the problems they are experiencing currently, end zone celebrations should be the least of their concerns.  NFL = Not For Long - only a matter of time before it all blows up on them.

Good grief......penalized for THAT?!

Really?

Did he change his name back or is he still ochocinco?

Too many people celebrating? Isn't there a limit to how many can celebrate in the end zone? Other than that I don't think it's a penalty. He didn't use the football, no props and he didn't leave his feet.

innovative for sure!  I like it!

Agreed. Except I don't even like taunting calls. Hester getting penalized for taunting when he high steps into the endzone breaking Deion's record...really? C'mon man!

Don't want the other team to taunt you? Don't let them score.

I read the TMQ column (well, skim is more like it, it's too long ;)) every week on espn.com and he's been harping on this very topic for five years.  He says in his latest column that "There is no law of nature that says the NFL must remain popular." Yet, it seems as though they, as a league, seem to conduct business with the belief that there is.  I think it started most seriously with their seeming lack of care towards the concussion problem.  "People are getting seriously, seriously injured, what should we do about it?  I know, let's lengthen the season!!"  And now it seems to be getting exponentially worse with the latest off the field issues.

If they're not careful, things could get really bad, really fast for them.

As far as the end zone celebrations are concerned, I think it's silly that they penalize that kind of stuff, but at the same time I don't like it.  It's so corny and contrived, it looks like the type of stuff you'd see in a cheesy movie like The Replacements or something.  I don't really like any pre-planned celebrations.  Anything spontaneous (that's not taunting) is fine, or better yet, the Barry Sanders style of celebrating is the best:

Greg Easterbrook is a haughty dipshit.

LOL, quite possibly.  A lot of the stuff in his columns I don't care about and skip over, especially the non-football stuff.  But I think he's right about that one topic.  The NFL has a bit of an ego problem and if they're not careful, they may just find out the hard way that nobody is invincible.

Sometimes I think the NFL forgets that it's football people love, not the NFL.

Every major sports industry has had their time in the limelight and then fallen into the background;

• Indy and NASCAR - there was a time when the Indy 500 was like the Super Bowl, everyone watched it.  Same goes for NASCAR Daytona 500 when #3 was terrorizing the track.  I don't even know if there still is an Indy 500.
• During the Jordan / Bird / Magic years, the NBA was in untouchable then it sank into the abyss and it's only starting to recover thanks mostly to Lebron.
• MLB was pre-empting prime time television shows to update fans on the HR race, then we found it they were all juicing and now no one cares.  Who's in the playoffs?  Who cares?
• Boxing hasn't been really relevant since Mike Tyson went to prison, Mayweather was a blip but no one really cares about non-heavy weight boxers for some reason.
• The NHL labor strikes have hurt it, but it's actually recovering and might be more popular today than it's been in a long time.

The NFL has avoided (until now) the big scandals and they did a very good job in keeping in front of the really harmful stories like steroids, concussions, lawsuits from former players and "Spygate".  Goodell doesn't discuss the number of teams that are in financial trouble (Jaguars, Raiders, Titans) and others that have to give away a lot of tickets for all their home games just to keep the blackout rules from taking effect.  Even the Jets are struggling to fill the stadium and have resorted to severe ticket discounting to get people in the stadium (much to the dismay of season ticket holders).  Despite all that the NFL was headed towards another banner year until Ray Rice.

What Goodell did wrong with Ray Rice is he and the Ravens tried to sneak one past us and the media.  When Roger realized the details of what Rice did might get out, he tried to get in front of it again with his "new" tougher policy and apology but it was too little - too late.   Now that the media knows the NFL has been attempting to cover up these stories they are on the hunt for them and they want blood, Rogers blood.

There's an arrogance within the NFL today that people dislike and the owners are likely going to have to sacrifice Goodell to get some relief from the constant media criticism and negative press.  The owners don't want to leave the door open for another USFL or XFL so they will have to make a tough decision.   The owners are just as much to blame, but Goodell is the mouth piece so he must go.

They don't call it the No Fun League for nothing