`Excessive celebration' penalty called racist, ridiculous
Letter to the Editor
Is it just me, or does the "excessive celebration" rule in college football just smack of racism? When this rule was first implemented, I recall that all the examples given regarding what constitutes "excessive celebration" included African-American players. And, it remains a call imposed mainly on black athletes and not their white counterparts.
For instance, it is acceptable for a white player to point at the camera (ala Bobby Brown) and "strike a pose" with only one finger in the air indicating a thought like "we're number one." Likewise, it is OK for place kickers (who are generally non-black) to prance around with their hand high in the air when the make a game winning extra-point or field goal. But let a black athlete make a potentially game-winning catch (possibly the catch of his life) against their biggest rival (one of the biggest rivalries known to college football) after his team just pulled off the most amazing fourth and inches play in team history and have the home team officials observe him "strike a pose" in the camera for a few seconds and you have "excessive celebration." Please!
Mary Penrose
First-Year Law Student
September 6, 1999
We read in this morning's sports pages that Notre Dame's Bobby Brown was whistled for excessive celebration in the final minutes of last Saturday's game with Michigan for "imitating a moose."
We at Mooseworld (www.mooseworld.com) take this very seriously. While we hold no place for taunting, we hardly think imitating one of nature's most magnificent and gentle creatures is bad form and certainly doesn't deserve a 15-yard penalty.
If excessive celebration penalties must be given, let's restrict them to imitating, say, politicians or talk show hosts. But give moose a break.
Next time your team scores, consider imitating a moose. It will reflect well on you, on moose, and, besides, how can the referees penalize 100,000 civilized fans?
Go moose!
Randall Schultz
Mooseworld
September 8, 1999
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, September 9, 1999
