Clyde Edwards-Helaire should be allowed to point to anyone he wants

Clyde Edwards-Helaire made a point on Sunday. It seems that more than a few NFL analysts are missing it on Monday.

In case you missed a tiny penalty in the bigger picture of the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, an important 19-9 victory that capped off a perfect November for the now-AFC West leaders, Edwards-Helaire was flagged for taunting while scoring a touchdown. It had no bearing on the final outcome, and it didn’t even affect the score. Yet it’s still a talking point 24 hours after the game.

Before we get into the issues at hand (along with the ridiculous takes), we should actually point (pun intended) to the matter at hand. Edwards-Helaire was rolling in the first half for the Chiefs in his first action since Week 5. As the Chiefs were at the goal line, Mahomes faked the Dallas defense before flipping the ball to Edwards-Helaire for this short run into the end zone for an easy six.

En route to the lead, CEH decided to point:

If your response is something along the lines of, “Wait, that’s it?”, you’re not wrong. No that’s it. You didn’t miss anything and you don’t need to watch it again. There’s zero need for slow-motion or a comprehensive breakdown. The NFL is simply wanting the kids to get off its lawn.

At the time, everyone on Twitter seemed to be saying the same thing: “What the hell is going on here?” in so many words. But as NFL columnists and analysts began to write about it, the tone changed just a bit. Here and there were reports saying that it was the player at fault here—that the league is justified in coming down hard on taunting in the name of sportsmanship or something else so generic.

Some weird takes about Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s celebration

It was especially frustrating to read Peter King’s weekly column (Football Morning in America) and see one entire paragraph about the Chiefs’ dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys. Even worse, it was entirely dedicated to the taunting penalty:

"I think if you’ve read me recently, you know I’m not a big fan of the taunting calls being emphasized by the league. But how stupid was it for Clyde Edwards-Helaire, knowing the officials are looking for any little thing to call taunting, to point at Dallas linebacker Luke Gifford as he crossed the goal line with a touchdown Sunday? That was the easiest call an official had to make in all of Week 11! It was a foolish decision by Edwards-Helaire."

Wait, so King is already a detractor of taunting—not a defender?—and he still backed the officials on this note? That’s insane. Seriously. I’ve been a fan of King’s writing now for decades (literally) and it’s a weekly commitment for me—a Monday morning ritual that goes back as long as I can remember. But this take is just a bit outside.

Clyde had good reason to feel as excited as he did

Edwards-Helaire is a dynamic young back who has felt the weight of constant criticism since he first entered the NFL because the Chiefs decided to use their only first-round pick in years on a running back. Even before he was ever spotted in a Chiefs uniform, he was called an overreach or luxury pick. The expectations, given the criticism, were sky-high, that Edwards-Helaire was going to need to match Kareem Hunt‘s otherworldly production or else he’d be termed a bust.

After a rookie year that (understandably) failed to live up to those lofty ideals, Edwards-Helaire was then injured for much of this season due to a sprained MCL suffered at the hands of the Buffalo Bills back in Week 5. Without him, the Chiefs began to turn things around, and in his first opportunity to contribute once again and get back to playing the game he loves, he runs for his first rushing score of the season. In celebration of all of this, he points.

How dare he.

Edwards-Helaire is a very young man who just overcome very frustrating circumstances to experience a very exciting moment. And the NFL wants to come down a player for pointing in celebration. It’d be one thing if CEH ran to a Cowboys defender and yelled something in his face or exclaimed some profane statement crossing the goal line or even gave him the middle finger instead of pointing. Instead, he pointed and scored and that was it.

This whole thing is so laughable that I feel silly even writing several hundred words about the entire affair. It was a point. It was a celebratory moment. It was innocent. We’re not sure why Peter King and others are so interested in being the fun police on Monday morning, but there are so many other talking points being overlooked. Maybe they could learn to point to them instead.