Written by Will Brinson at CBSSports.com
The NFL’s rules against celebration are old, stodgy and fly in the face of fun. It was never more apparent the league needs to fix the issue than on Sunday night, whenDallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott scored a touchdown and jumped into a gigantic Salvation Army kettle, only to draw a flag for celebrating.
Oh no, look at the football player breaking the rules! Entertaining fans and promoting a charity! Oh the humanity! Someone stop him!
And it’s not like Elliott planned out the celebration; there was no pre-meditation involved with the jump.
“I mean it’s just sitting there in the end zone,” Elliott said after the game. “We support the Salvation Army — NFL, Cowboys — they’re one of our biggest partners, so you know I had to show them a little bit of love.”
Even more ridiculous would have been the league fining Elliott for drawing attention to the charity. Technically Zeke could’ve been hit with a $12,154 fine for excessive celebration.
If the league fined him, he had a plan in place to give some money out in a much better spirit of the season.
Zeke Elliott says he’s going to match whatever fine the NFL gives him for the kettle jump & donate it to the @SalvationArmyUS.@NBCDFW
— Pat Doney (@PatDoneyNBC5) December 19, 2016
If he caused a delay of the game or offended anyone, sure, that’s fine. But he was in the kettle for a few seconds and ended up just drawing a lot of attention to a really worthy cause that everyone can still help out during the holiday season.
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