Let Them Live! Celebrations in the NFL and MLB

In the NFL, and many sports, it is customary to celebrate a scoring play. In the NBA, people tend to do such things after making a three point shot or a slam dunk. In the MLB, people tend to throw their bat up in the air while the ball is going over the wall for a home run, sometimes. In the NFL, it’s been the touchdown celebration (I would say touchdown dance but I wouldn’t classify a spike as a dance).

Touchdown Celebrations have been part of the NFL for as long as the NFL has existed and you can tell from how old some of the clips were in that video. The most famous dancers in NFL history might be  Elbert “Ickey” Woods of the Cincinnati Bengals and Deion “Primetime” Sanders who is well-known for playing on the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers among other teams in the NFL and MLB. It’s natural to want to celebrate an achievement. It’s human. So it makes sense that it happens in most professional sports. However, not all celebrations are taken to very kindly and that is for a variety of reasons.

This is Jose Bautista. He is one of the best players in the MLB. If you did not watch the MLB playoffs last year or are not familiar with baseball, this is what you have to know. The Toronto Blue Jays vs. The Texas Rangers was one of the best match-ups in the whole MLB postseason and that bat flips are “not welcomed” in baseball. I put that in quotation marks for a reason. This wasn’t just a bat flip, however. This was an intense bat flip. This bat was flipped so hard it almost disappeared like Bobby Shmurda’s hat. Jose Bautista plays for the Toronto Blue Jays and hit a hard home run, in Toronto, in a close and heated playoff series. The fans love it. Yet, this is a problem in the MLB.

This is Cam Newton, NFL MVP candidate and Carolina Panthers quarterback. He has been doing this simple dance after a big play, particularly a touchdown, for most of the season. This move is a popular dance moved today called ‘the dab’. He did it one day after a touchdown and as soon as he did it the Titans got upset, some fans got upset, and he has been doing it ever since and plans to continue doing it all the way to the Super Bowl. If I had to guess, the biggest reason that he is doing it right now is because to quote DJ Khaled, “They don’t want him to enjoy life, so he’s going to enjoy life. Just know.” My question is: why is everybody so uptight though?

I understand why a Rangers fan would be upset at Jose Bautista and why everybody in the NFL that doesn’t play on the Panthers would be mad at Cam Newton right now, but for many people in our society to have a problem with those who celebrate their own success is wrong to me. It’s their success. There is a limit to the amount of celebration is considered appropriate and I agree with that, as well. This is why you have penalties for excessive celebration in the NFL. However, I believe that that limit is when the celebration either disgraces the game or shames the opponent, although an argument can be made that the opponent allowing the celebrating team to get into a position where they believe that they can celebrate is shameful in itself. Notice how I have not talked about the NBA. The amount of signature celebrations that are in the NBA are kind of crazy, in a good way. The NBA got it right. They know that celebrations only enhance the NBA brand because they add more entertainment value to the product, which is the game. The MLB doesn’t approve bat flipping because of “the tradition of the game”. They call it upholding tradition, but I call it being stuck in the past and the MLB has had issues with that for a while now, but that’s a whole different blog post. However, it’s important to acknowledge that it is not illegal, just frowned upon. The bat flip energized the stadium and the fans watching at home. It added to the game. It wasn’t in disrespect to the opposing team. The NFL is slightly hypocritical with how they view the celebrations because it’s a problem when Cam Newton hits the dab but not when Odell Beckham Jr. hits the whip. Maybe it’s because Cam is viewed as cocky, but I feel he can do what he wants right now because he’s winning and, again, the casual fan loves it, Panthers fans love it, and the kids love it. He’s doing it for them and not the team that he is beating. Bottomline: If you want to stop a player from celebrating, beat them. As long as the player isn’t doing this…