ORLANDO, Fla. - Dance all you want after a touchdown, gentlemen. Just do it alone. Spike the ball or, if you have the hops, dunk it over the crossbar. Anything else - forget it.
Touchdown celebrations have gotten more and more original lately, from Chad Johnson's putting the football to Steve Smith changing a diaper to Terrell Owens using the ball as a waiter's tray. Those players will need to go back to work on new ideas within stricter parameters after NFL owners voted 29-3 Wednesday to limit such histrionics.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what Chad will come to celebrate with now," Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said after the vote. "He's pretty original and I'm sure he'll come up with something. It's a challenge to Chad in the offseason."
The genesis of the rule change adopted as the NFL meetings wrapped up came from the players' union itself. Last month at the NFL combine, a group of players told competition committee chairmen Rich McKay, general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, and Jeff Fisher, coach of the Tennessee Titans, they believed the celebrations were getting too elaborate.
"The players wanted defined limits of celebrations," Dungy said. "They really pushed for that."
The owners obliged, with Dallas, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay voting no.
"We want to eliminate where one man celebrating becomes more than a spontaneous action," said director of officiating Mike Pereira, whose crews will hand out 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to offenders - although the official has to warn a player before throwing the flag.
That includes anyone going to the ground to do their thing, or group celebrations. So no sit-ups by T.O. No grabbing the pylons as if they are putters. No multiple chest bumps.
Pereira noted an increase in such shenanigans in youth and high school football who regularly emulate the pros.
The owners were busy passing other rules and adjustments:
_ Allowing down by contact calls to be reviewed by replay to determine if the ball came out before the ballcarrier was down, and who recovered it. In the past, those plays weren't reviewable when officials ruled the whistle had ended the play.
_ Prohibiting pass rushers from hitting a passer in the knee or below unless they are blocked into him. The officiating department showed replays of low hits that caused serious injuries to Cincinnati's Palmer, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Tampa Bay's Brian Griese, although in all cases, those wouldn't draw penalties because the rushers were blocked in such a way that they couldn't avoid the hits.
_Toughening the horse-collar rule enacted last season. It now bans tacklers from taking down ballcarriers from the rear by tugging inside their jerseys. Last year's rule required that the tackler's hand got inside the runner's shoulder pads. Only two horse-collars were called in 2005 and the Pereira said one was an incorrect call.
_ Prohibiting defensive players from lining up directly over center on field-goal and extra-point attempts to avoid injuries to long snappers.
Rejected was a proposal aimed at cutting down illegal procedure penalties by eliminating such calls on players flanked outside the line of scrimmage who flinch without the defense reacting. A flinch will remain a 5-yard penalty.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he still thinks his successor will be in place by his target date of July, even though no action was taken here to begin a search. He'll appoint a committee next week of six to eight owners, and they'll hire a search firm that will interview all 32 owners on what they want in a new commissioner.
"I think it's great," New England owner Robert Kraft said of the search process this time. "How else can you have 32 people feel part of the process?"
Tagliabue said he thought a 2007 preseason game in Beijing is a strong possibility. He also added five owners - Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, Paul Allen of the Seahawks, Pat Bowlen of the Broncos, Jeffrey Lurie of the Eagles, and Steve Tisch of the Giants - to the six-man committee that is looking into stadium proposals for a team in Los Angeles. Those proposals, from Anaheim and the current Los Angeles Coliseum area, will be examined and discussed in the next few weeks, and Tagliabue expects it to be a main subject of the spring meetings May 22-24 in Denver.
Touchdown celebrations have gotten more and more original lately, from Chad Johnson's putting the football to Steve Smith changing a diaper to Terrell Owens using the ball as a waiter's tray. Those players will need to go back to work on new ideas within stricter parameters after NFL owners voted 29-3 Wednesday to limit such histrionics.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what Chad will come to celebrate with now," Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said after the vote. "He's pretty original and I'm sure he'll come up with something. It's a challenge to Chad in the offseason."
The genesis of the rule change adopted as the NFL meetings wrapped up came from the players' union itself. Last month at the NFL combine, a group of players told competition committee chairmen Rich McKay, general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, and Jeff Fisher, coach of the Tennessee Titans, they believed the celebrations were getting too elaborate.
"The players wanted defined limits of celebrations," Dungy said. "They really pushed for that."
The owners obliged, with Dallas, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay voting no.
"We want to eliminate where one man celebrating becomes more than a spontaneous action," said director of officiating Mike Pereira, whose crews will hand out 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to offenders - although the official has to warn a player before throwing the flag.
That includes anyone going to the ground to do their thing, or group celebrations. So no sit-ups by T.O. No grabbing the pylons as if they are putters. No multiple chest bumps.
Pereira noted an increase in such shenanigans in youth and high school football who regularly emulate the pros.
The owners were busy passing other rules and adjustments:
_ Allowing down by contact calls to be reviewed by replay to determine if the ball came out before the ballcarrier was down, and who recovered it. In the past, those plays weren't reviewable when officials ruled the whistle had ended the play.
_ Prohibiting pass rushers from hitting a passer in the knee or below unless they are blocked into him. The officiating department showed replays of low hits that caused serious injuries to Cincinnati's Palmer, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Tampa Bay's Brian Griese, although in all cases, those wouldn't draw penalties because the rushers were blocked in such a way that they couldn't avoid the hits.
_Toughening the horse-collar rule enacted last season. It now bans tacklers from taking down ballcarriers from the rear by tugging inside their jerseys. Last year's rule required that the tackler's hand got inside the runner's shoulder pads. Only two horse-collars were called in 2005 and the Pereira said one was an incorrect call.
_ Prohibiting defensive players from lining up directly over center on field-goal and extra-point attempts to avoid injuries to long snappers.
Rejected was a proposal aimed at cutting down illegal procedure penalties by eliminating such calls on players flanked outside the line of scrimmage who flinch without the defense reacting. A flinch will remain a 5-yard penalty.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he still thinks his successor will be in place by his target date of July, even though no action was taken here to begin a search. He'll appoint a committee next week of six to eight owners, and they'll hire a search firm that will interview all 32 owners on what they want in a new commissioner.
"I think it's great," New England owner Robert Kraft said of the search process this time. "How else can you have 32 people feel part of the process?"
Tagliabue said he thought a 2007 preseason game in Beijing is a strong possibility. He also added five owners - Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, Paul Allen of the Seahawks, Pat Bowlen of the Broncos, Jeffrey Lurie of the Eagles, and Steve Tisch of the Giants - to the six-man committee that is looking into stadium proposals for a team in Los Angeles. Those proposals, from Anaheim and the current Los Angeles Coliseum area, will be examined and discussed in the next few weeks, and Tagliabue expects it to be a main subject of the spring meetings May 22-24 in Denver.
