Kamau Peterson
CFL.ca
Young boys playing football all over North America each weekend with their friends will score touchdowns. After such monumental athletic achievements these boys will be overcome with jubilation as all eyes fall to them at this, their time of triumph. A young man must be prepared for this moment, as one can never know if and when it will come again. Luckily you have prepared for this!
Weekends watching both the NFL and CFL pros getting into the endzone have filled your head with ideas about which celebration is just right for you at this time. Will it be the Deion Sanders high-step and shuffle? Or maybe the river dance like Chad Johnson? Or Jamal Anderson’s dirty bird? Or maybe dancing is a bit over the top for you, perhaps a nice pose suits you better. Like Geroy Simon’s Superman or Arland Bruce’s Spiderman? Maybe even a group effort like Montreal’s pop locking duo of Cavil and Copeland years back, or Calgary’s bobsled team?
Perhaps you decided early in life that you have no interest in bringing more attention to yourself at a moment like this and just want to drop the ball and get back to the huddle. Whichever you choose at that tender age, such intense decisions don’t stop at the backyard or sandlot level, they follow you up through all levels of football. It seems that around every corner you’ll have influencers telling you to have fun and play with emotion and at the next corner they’ll be telling you to contain yourself and show some resolve. It can be quite confusing at times, but hang in there! You’ll find a means of celebration that works for you.
I’ve noticed that the celebration has been an ongoing debate since I’ve been involved in football and I don’t see it really letting up at any point in the near future, as to me the differing schools are both generational as well as cultural.
Many of the athletes doing the celebrating at the professional level have been doing so since youth football and Pop Warner days. I’ve spoken to players from football hubs like Texas and Florida that have said that poor celebrations at the youth football level can lead to being ostracized and ridiculed, so an emphasis is put on creativity. At the same time, I’ve spoken to players growing up in Pennsylvania and Ohio that say they would have been benched or even kicked off of some of their youth or high school teams if they celebrated big plays.
Once you enter the ranks of U.S. college football, pretty much all celebrations are put on ice as few players are willing to incur the wrath of their coaches after drawing penalties post touchdown. However, upon entering the pro ranks it is decision time all over again.
It can be difficult for a young playmaker to make his name in this league. Often you arrive on a team with veterans in place who have earned a higher standing on the food chain and therefore command more opportunities, which of course only intensifies your thirst to have your talent noticed.
Your method of celebration can literally make you or break you with some fans. Traditionalists seem to covet players that are as nonchalant as possible after making a play (Ben Cahoon, Barry Sanders), while the new guard tends to favour more entertainment value in their players (Paris Jackson, Nik Lewis, Shawne Merriman).
Depending on who’s commentating the game, your exploits could actually be disparaged on air – which is never a good thing as so many are swayed by initial television or radio commentary. Not to mention that there are usually a few coaches or team brass who don’t care for such loquacious behaviour. Such celebrations can draw the ire of opposing players, of course, as they may feel as if you’re rubbing it in. Referees may even single you out for unsportsmanlike conduct. I’m sure we could all name several reasons why it’s not a great idea to act out.
On the other hand, such antics can help build your fan base as well. The notion of winning the crowd seems far more likely the more entertaining you come off. If we are in fact modern day gladiators then this ideology is already well proven by Rome’s gladiators of old, in their ability to win over the masses at the Coliseum – which seemed to inevitably better their options.
Deion Sanders was able to revolutionize the position of cornerback both with his play, as well as with the attention that he brought to the position itself through his posturing, preening and seemingly constant dancing. While ‘Neon’ Deion was introducing the next generation to the concept of “Primetime” the business of football was getting a lesson in self branding perhaps before it was even ready to deal with such a concept. That concept has been taken and run with by many of today’s players and the on-field celebration part of that.
The youth market in particular seems quite enthralled with the celebrations of Jermaine Copeland, Arland Bruce III, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Geroy Simon etc. so fashioning your own unique celebration or two could help give your fan base an injection of youth that often has reviving capabilities to a career.
The act of celebration itself is an attention seeking one and one that implies a certain level of confidence in one’s abilities which can be viewed as a positive by management. Not to mention, I’ve heard often times that there aren’t too many things that you can do to keep people talking about you, that won’t work out in your favour in this game.
As someone who’s been on both sides of the fence, I’ll tell you that I think that the best thing to do is to do what comes naturally. Whatever feeling emits from you in that moment… just go with it. At the very least it will be authentic and somewhat original if not just in sentiment alone. But for goodness sake, if you’re going to dance – have some rhythm about it!
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