NFL Commisioner Paul Tagliabue is retiring. But not before he sucks out all the fun out of the NFL, or as I am calling it now the OFL…the Old Fashioned League.

Already the OFL doesn’t allow it’s players to be individuals. They throw fines at players for speaking their minds and for making good football plays (sure some of those plays end up hurting some people, but why play the game if you can’t play it right).

They criticize players like Clinton Portis for dressing up during press conferences. They fine players for wearing the wrong colored shoes or different colored socks. They take money out of player’s checks for wearing the wrong hat on the sideline. And now they have taken away the last form of personal expression that it had…the touchdown celebration.

No more putting the ball with the pylon. No more Chad Johnson Lord of the Dance Impressions. No more wiping the ball as if it were a baby. No more putting the ball on a platter as if you were a waiter. No more posing as if you were Anna Kounikova doing her latest calender shoot. And definately no more signing your name with a Sharpie.

Gone are the propsals to cheerleaders and the ever so popular “Sprinkler” dance of the Seahawks. Gone is the snow angel, goalpost dunk and if he was still around…the Ickey Shuffle.

If “Tags” would have made this rule years ago, not only would we have never experienced the Ickey Shuffle, but we would have missed out on “The Dirty Bird”, “The Funky Chicken”, “The Mile High Salute” and every spike of the ball you ever saw.

Sure with this rule you won’t get the assinine celebrations like running to the Dallas Star and spiking the ball, or hiding a cell phone by the goal post to use after you score. But even if those acts were assinine, they were creative and added some individualism in this often mundane game.

Who wants to see someone score and just hand the ball off to the ref. That’s boring. Scoring a touchdown in the NFL is not an easy thing to do. So when they do finally get into the endzone, why not let them celebrate it.

Baseball players point to the sky, pump their fists and trot around the bases when they hit a homerun. Basketball players bump their chests, high five and sometimes shimmy down the court after making a basket. Hell soccer players often rip off their shirts they are so happy they scored. So why can’t the players of what most consider “The New American Pastime” show a little creativity when they get the job done.

Hopefully the NFL will bring in a new commissioner that knows how to run a league and allow the players to have fun at the same time. Maybe that new commish will realize that 60 year old white men aren’t really that in touch with the young Black athletes that are the main reason for this rule. For some reason I don’t think that they would have that big of an issue with Peyton Manning breakdancing after a score, or Tom Brady rocking the football to sleep after he crossed the endlines.

But we’ll never know now will we. Thanks for taking away one of the most entertaining aspects of Sunday NFL, the Endzone celebration. I’ll miss what you had to offer this year Chad Johnson, Steve Smith and T.O. But atleast they didn’t get rid of the dumbest celebration of them all….the Lambeau Leap. So we got that going for us. Welcome to the OFL.

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