I guess one thing that separates me from male football fans is the fact that I actually have favorite football penalties.
Some penalties are boring: for example, holding. Ho-Hum. Some are just misnamed like the Delay of Game call. If they were really worried about the game taking too long, they would just let it go. Enforcing that penalty actually takes a lot longer than if they just let the players take an extra second or two. Call it what it is: You Ran Out of Time.
But I have two that I like: Excessive Celebration is definitely the best penalty in my book. This is penalty is akin to a hangover the morning after a great night out. You are now being punished because you had too much fun. My number two penalty is Illegal Touching. How funny is that? It reminds me of two kids fighting in the back of a car yelling because the other one touched them or, even better, a guy trying to get to second base with a new girlfriend. In fact, these two penalties remind me of life in college.
Last night, during the Baltimore Raven’s near upset of the New England Patriots, the refs called one I hadn’t heard before. It really made me think that the penalized player had read this blog entry. A Ravens player, presumably out of frustration after the Patriots scored a touchdown, picked up one of the ref’s flags that had been thrown after a penalty on the play and threw it up in the stands. They kept showing the replay of the touchdown, but I really wanted to see the player throwing the flag into the crowd. He was penalized again for that and will, no doubt, be fined. Certainly, it wasn’t the best way for that player to conduct himself on the field, but I think that he gets points for creative use of a flag.
And, his actions, which I imagine created a new category in the rulebooks under penalties, now ranks as my third most favorite infraction: bad behavior with a ref’s flag.
