There are plenty of things that NFL fans would like the league to do differently, but slowing the game down to hand out 15-yard penalties for jawing after plays probably isn’t high on that list. That didn’t stop the NFL from instituting a very strict new taunting policy in which almost anything done directly towards an opponent — whether it be a single player or the bench — is now met with a flag and a 15-yard penalty.
That it’s a 15-yard penalty is, in particular, what makes the rule so frustrating, because taunting penalties can now completely change a game as we saw this week in Seattle. Seahawks defensive back DJ Reed celebrated a late incompletion in the face of AJ Brown too aggressively and was hit with a 15-yarder that gave the Titans a first down in Seahawks territory and allowed them to continue what became a game-tying drive in the fourth quarter — with Tennessee ultimately winning the game in overtime.
Reed wasn’t alone in getting hit with a penalty that seemed soft at best and downright ridiculous at worst on Sunday, as the new taunting policy became a topic of conversation around the NFL as fans grew increasingly frustrated with some of the penalties. Just take a look at this supercut of a number of taunting calls from Sunday and you’ll see why.
Here are some of the taunting penalties called on Sunday. This stuff is a disaster. It has to stop. pic.twitter.com/DFC1VtZHe6
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 20, 2021
The one where the Texans receiver spins the ball in celebration — a fairly normal occurrence after a big catch — and gets flagged is particularly egregious because he just happened to do so while right next to the Cleveland sideline. We’ve known since the preseason that these flags were going to drive us crazy and sure enough, here we are two weeks into the season with fans begging the league to change course on this new point of emphasis.
Hopefully the league will soften its stance on this some as the season wears on, because if we get to the end of the season and the postseason still making calls like this and a critical game gets flipped because of a soft taunting call, some fanbase is going to have a meltdown for the ages.