NFL Graded Abdullah’s TD Celebration Penalty As Correct

The NFL is quickly losing all of their credibility when it comes to off-field matters.

In Monday night’s game against the New England Patriots, Husain Abdullah intercepted a Tom Brady pass and returned it for a touchdown. We all experienced joy, and you can relive that joy right now if you’d like. Abdullah, who is a practicing Muslim, slid to his knees and postured in a prayer position that reflected his faith. All seemed fine.

All was fine anyway until an official threw a flag on Abdullah for an excessive celebration penalty. Per NFL rules, no celebration is allowed to take place on the ground. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, if you choose to go to the ground and celebrated then you will be penalized. Case closed. The problem here is Abdullah was thanking God for his success, not wildly celebrating, which puts the official in a really terrible position.

The NFL made matters worse the following morning when they saw the controversy sweeping around the Internet that Abdullah was penalized for praying. They released a statement saying Abdullah should not have been penalized and that official made an error, essentially throwing the official under the bus for throwing a flag that caused a public relations nightmare for the NFL.

Still, it appeared the NFL statement was enough to quell the rage and let things go. We had our scapegoat, now we move on. There’s just one problem, the NFL Referees Association, the governing body that grades official’s game-to-game officiating decision and helps determine which officials will officiate playoff games and the Super Bowl, said today the decision to throw the flag on that play was indeed correct.

"“Both the officials and the player involved in the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty were not confused as to why a flag was thrown. The player was flagged, correctly, for the slide on his knees in the end zone, not for going to the ground in a prayerful gesture,” said retired referee and former NFLRA president Scott Green in the release. “On field officials are aware of the prayer provision and respect the right of players of all faiths to express themselves.”"

What we have here now is two things: A) The NFL either doesn’t understand their own rules or is willing to throw their officials under the bus if it is to their PR benefit, and B) the NFL has a lot of dumbass rules.

It took virtually no time for the NFL to come out and say the call on Abdullah was incorrect, releasing their statement in the early morning hours on Tuesday. Given the NFL’s recent issues with domestic violence and brain injuries, it would seem to indicate the NFL is trying to ward off as much bad PR as possible. The appearance of a Muslim player being penalized for doing a Muslim prayer is not good PR.

But the NFL deserves to look foolish in this situation. The NFL has become so paranoid about their corporate image that they’ve destroyed part of the joy of playing (and watching) the games. In an over-reaction to players like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, the NFL created blanket and overly broad rules to eliminate as many celebration opportunities as possible. They’ve gone so far as to bad dunking the ball over the goalposts. Now, a player who is only wishing to thank his God, is being penalized because by rule sliding the ground is THE WORST DISPLAY OF SHOWMANSHIP EVERY AND MUST BE BANNED FROM THE GAME.

Or something like that.

Someone at the NFL offices needs to come to grips that celebrating is all bad. Penalize players who do obnoxious things like mooning the crowd or causing fights at midfield. Putting  an official in a spot where he has to throw a flag on a guy who is just trying to get to his knees so he can pray is incredibly stupid. Maybe this kind of PR nightmare is enough to get the NFL to consider easing up on their dumb rules.