Thankfully, the good rulers at the NFL have a plan to prevent future players from ripping away the United States' innocence, like Tate did on Monday night. According to Pro Football Talk, NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino said today that the Competition Committee will explore changing the NFL's taunting rules to make them more in line with college football's. Which means we could be looking, in 2014, at an NFL that penalizes taunting player with a negated touchdown and a 15-yard penalty. THANK GOD-DELL.
“A lot of people felt that the touchdown shouldn’t have counted [but] a taunting foul is always treated as a dead-ball foul, meaning whatever happened during the play counts, and the foul is enforced on the next play, which would be the kickoff,” Blandino said. “In college, this action would take back the touchdown. Tate started taunting at the 25-yard line. The college rule, that’s enforced at the spot of the foul, so they’d go from a touchdown to first-and-10 at the 40, which would be a gigantic penalty. The NFL rule, it’s a dead-ball foul, it’s enforced on the kickoff. But I’m sure that’s something that the Competition Committee will look at in the offseason.”
Sarcasm aside, this is asinine. Tate didn't affect the field of play with his taunt. He earned a target on his back, not a penalty. No. Fun. League.
[H/T: PFT]
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