Butler's celebration is a brilliant example of a player being overwhelmingly excited at scoring. You can come up with dance routines, store stuff down your socks and kiss your badge, but I think the best celebrations are ones where the player is just overcome with happiness and excitement. Look at the pictures below, these aren't pre-planned celebrations!
You can't see Butler's face as he leaps into the crowd, but I'd imagine it would be pretty similar to the ones above. Butler's "Lambeau Leap" created a celebration that lives to this day. Most home touchdowns are followed by a leap into the crowd. It's a nice tradition and unique in the NFL. Some players have trademark celebrations, but the Lambeau Leap is the only stadium specific celebration.
So why is this a "Pet Hate" of mine?
The answer lies in the NFL rulebook. Specifically the rules concerning celebrating a touchdown. Reasonably enough, the league bans taunting. They have also stopped "prop based" displays, following players using items such as phones, pens and flags. Again, this is fair enough, and failure to adhere to either of these results in a 15 yard penalty from kick off for "excessive celebrating", but the rules can be a bit Draconian. For example, it's a penalty to "drop to your knees" during a celebration. I've no idea what harm this does. Maybe the league want to help protect players knees from getting grass stains.
The aspect of the rulebook that covers the "Lambeau Leap" states that it is a penalty if the "Two-or-more players engage in prolonged, excessive, premeditated, or choreographed celebrations". Hmm, so the rules suggests that it's perfectly OK for one player to leap into the crowd. That makes no sense to me whatsoever - you can't drop to your knees but you can throw yourself head first into the crowd!
To illustrate the point, here's evil Eric Decker getting penalised for shamelessly dropping to his knee to celebrate a touchdown:
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| Disgusting Behaviour. Look at the distressed cheerleader in the background. |
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| Perfectly Safe |
According to NFL rules expert, Mike Pereira the Leap was "grandfathered" in to the League when the new rules were introduced in 2005. "Grandfathered"?! Now there's a term I've never heard before, it appears that Pereira was stating that the Leap is a tradition and, as such, it can transcend the rulebook. Again, this makes no real sense, there were "traditional" celebrations in place long before the Leap was born. It's all a bit "one rule for them, one rule for us"
So my problem isn't with the Leap itself, I think it was a nice tradition and a good way of celebrating. My problem is with the NFL rules and their lack of consistency. Why should exceptions be made to the rules?
And more importantly, what is the point of the rules? Don't use props or taunt the opposition/fans, but why shouldn't you drop to your knees or fall to the floor to celebrate a touchdown? If you're overcome with excitement then why not be allowed to express it?
This is why the Leap annoys me. It sums up the absurdity of the NFL rules on celebrating. So sorry Packers fans, it's going into my personal NFL Room 101!
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I still haven't received my Eagles baby gift set, but credit to the NFLUK shop, they were very quick to respond to my query on the matter. Apparently they don't have any stocked in the UK so are awaiting the delivery from the US. And there was me thinking this would be a best selling item and they'd have plenty in stock here!
As for my attempt to recruit a new Eagles fan. Let's just say it's a work in progress, hopefully I'll have this box ticked in a couple of weeks.
Next up, I'll be starting my attempt to win a Madden franchise with the Eagles. WARNING - I am woeful at video games. Seriously appalling.
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