Orson addressed this with a little more eloquence than I will, but how in the world is A.J. Green’s touchdown “celebration” considered unsportsmanlike conduct? Let’s review the circumstances: Georgia is trailing LSU late in the fourth quarter and driving for a go-ahead score. A win over the Tigers would help legitimize a Bulldogs team, while vaulting them directly in the middle of the SEC Championship Game chase. And then, with about a minute left in the game, quarterback Joe Cox finds A.J. Green, perhaps the best player in the SEC in end zone, throws it and Green makes yet another spectacular play look easy by catching the jump ball in traffic and coming down for the score.

Now, in a game where the emotional and competitive sides are running at maximum, you apparently aren’t allowed to enjoy such a significant score with your teammates — even if they are mobbing you, celebrating such a huge catch. No, instead, you are expected to simply hand the ball back to the officials and return to the sidelines, play significance and teammate praise be damned.

Otherwise, SEC officials will, with a straight face, punish you for having an emotional reaction to such a hard-fought result. Which will, in turn, no doubt comeback to bite you in the ass when you have to kick the ball off to Trindon Holliday. And that’s just what happened: LSU got the ball UGA’s 42-yard line and proceeded to score the winning touchdown — a play that was also penalized because of Charles Scott and his audacity of pointing at the crowd after reaching the end zone. Granted, A.J. Green’s penalty didn’t prevent his defense from making a stop on LSU’s game-winning drive, but good field position shouldn’t be discounted.

Is it time for this silly, ineffective rule to be abolished, or at least severely modified? According to Tony Barnhart, it is:

I just feel the rule, which was created with the best of intentions, has morphed into something that is now hurting the game. It is called so inconsistently. Earlier this year a Florida player was flagged after a quarterback sack for simply rolling his hands like a traveling call in basketball. A little while later a Tennessee player sacked the quarterback and did several chest bumps. Nothing was called. In my opinion neither should have been called. The official on the play just tells the young man to cool it and get back to his teammates. No harm, no foul.

One of two things has to happen for the good of the game: My suggestion is to eliminate the rule entirely because it has become clear to me that it can’t be enforced on a consistent basis. Excessive celebration is too much in the eye of the beholder. Replace it with a taunting rule. Taunting is more clearly defined than excessive celebration.

Meanwhile, the NFL allows their players to jump into the stands, group hug, chest bump and generally enjoy the results of their efforts, just as long as it’s not choreographed. With that in mind, are we using the “No Fun League” designation correctly? Perhaps it should be retconned to mean the NCAA.

Maybe something like, No Celebrations Allowed, Asshole, because that’s exactly the way college officials treat these situations.

Update
The SEC’s Supervisor of Officials released a statement saying the call should not have been made and that the official who made the call feels bad about it. That should make everything better, right Georgia fans?

Tags: A.J. Green, Bad Referees, Goergia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, SEC Football, Touchdown

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