Marvin Lewis Oozes Hypocrisy With TD Celebration Comment
By Erik Lambert
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is not a happy man. Why? Mostly due to a recent change by the NFL to ease penalization of TD celebrations.
Lewis made no effort to hide his distaste for this ruling. One of the longest tenured coaches in the league today is somewhat of a traditionalist. Personal celebrations have no place in a team sport. It’s quite a turnaround for what has become known as the “No Fun League” of late. People criticizing the governing body of being way too strict with what is supposed to be a game after all. What’s wrong with letting the guys taking the hits and doing the work to enjoy it a bit?
Everything according to Lewis as he told Katherine Terrell of ESPN.
"“I’m not for that at all. We had a good standard, and the whole standard has always been, you want to teach people how to play the game the correct way and go about it the correct way, and that’s not a very good example for young people.The rules were changed for a reason, and I thought we had a good outcome,” he said. “Again, this is a team game, and … I don’t understand why we want to give in to individual celebrations.”"
Hard to ignore the hypocrisy
It’s becoming easier to see why Lewis hasn’t been very successful in the playoffs. The guy is wound a little too tight. He’s also giving off serious hints of hypocrisy with those comments. This is the same guy advocating the Bengals to sign players like Adam Jones and Vontaze Burfict. Two notorious troublemakers on and off the field. They also just drafted Joe Mixon, a proven beater of women. Are those guys supposed to be good examples for the young people?
That feels like the equivalent of a local police wanting to outlaw dancing while trying to protect an arsonist. A bit of a harsh and over-the-top example but no less true. The celebration of doing something you enjoy and succeed at is not something to be punished and banned. Sure penalties can be used to hit the guys who go overboard, but football is still a game. Games should be fun.
Simply tossing the ball to a ref after a score may be professional, but it’s also boring. It’s not a coincidence that one of the most exciting periods of NFL football was between 2000 and 2008 when the TD celebration craze reached a fever pitch. Seems the league is coming around to that realization. Maybe somebody should ask Lewis a counter question.
Why don’t you like fun?