I hated BOTH excessive celebration calls. I believe that the rule should be changed so the player scoring a TD can make a spontaneous (not planned, no "act") show of joy and emotion within 5 seconds of scoring. You should be able to jump up and down with your teammates in an unplanned manner. You should NOT be able to taunt the other team. This is college football, these are young men who are not being paid to do this. Most will never play in the NFL, and they do this because they LOVE the game. It's emotional, and that emotion should be allowed to come out naturally and spontaneously after a big play, for a few seconds.
And they do allow spontaneous celebration. What they are trying to stop is mugging for the crowd like Peterson did after his celebration in an earlier game. But simply pointing at the fans as if to say "Thanks for your support" is NOT inciting a crowd.
So, is the current rule the problem, or just these officials interpretation of the rule? Sounds like you are saying, it was the officials.
of course its the officials. this isnt the spirit of the rule and they know it. they are just old men who grew up when there were leather helmets and all white dudes on the field minus jim brown. so the usually emotional black dude freaks them out.
I think the powers that be are taking too much fun out of the games. In both college and the NFL. If someone wants to dance or jump around with teammates then so be it. Its a fun, emotional game. ITs much better than having a bunch of robots running around playing it. I miss the old days of the Redskins Fun Bunch. Or watching Deion dance. If you dont want to get shown up dont allow the TD! I know some things can be a bit excessive, like actual taunting an opponent which can start up a fight. Other than that, let them have fun. Those BS penalties piss me off.
It very well could have cost Georgia the game and was a horrible call. Hopefully the SEC will talk to the officials about this.
like they talked to them about the no call chop block from auburn? or how many other incredibly bad blown calls? i want some of what you are smokin!
It was so egregious that I dont' know how they don't talk to them. We're talking about one missed call in a game, we're talking about a whole mentality that directly influenced the outcome of a huge game. I'm glad it went our way but it could have gone the other way.