Question #5 - "I watched the UW/BYU game on Saturday, and it begs the question... have we gone totally overboard on this whole celebration thing?"

Question from Jorge from Seattle, WA... "I watched the UW/BYU game on Saturday, and it begs the question... have we gone totally overboard on this whole celebration thing?"
I can answer this in one word... YES!
That being said, college football should be held to a higher standard than the NFL. Sportsmanship over showing off. Taunting detracts from overall brilliance of a great catch, or spectacular run. Rather than we as viewers being in awe of the athleticism of the player, we are left with a hollow view of that player as person.

I recall a game where BYU played the University of Utah, and one Rob Morris (MLB for BYU) intercepted the UofU quarterback and ran it back for a touchdown. Impressive, brilliant.... wait a minute... he is doing a pretend snow angel in the endzone... what a jerk.

There are many instances where an offensive lineman sits on the quarterback for a few extra seconds to either squish the poor guy, tell him to enjoy being on the ground, or say something about his momma. It's poor sportsmanship any time you don't let your game do the talking. Simple as that.

Now in the case of the poor boy from UW who, upon setting up the tying extra point, lost his head and threw the ball 30 feet in the air. I think that it was very impressive for Jake Locker to run all over the BYU defense. I believe that he was the game changer for the Huskies, despite many errant throws. He got caught up in the moment, and was penalized for it. Now was the call correct? Yes. The rule clearly prohibits the exact thing that Locker did.


Now for the controversy... Did the call cost the Huskies the game? Well let's see, I have a few questions of my own:

Did the call take away the straight on 35 yard PAT? ----- No
Did the call remove the O-Line of the Huskies from the field? ----- No
Did the call allow BYU to bowl over the O-line of the Huskies ----- No
Did the call in any way make the hands of the BYU line bigger? -----No


The Washington Huskies cost themselves the game by:
1. Not stopping BYU
2. Not scoring enough
3. Not allowing their kicker to get the PAT off before BYU blocked it

I agree that the celebration rule needs to be changed, but that in no way takes away from a stout BYU line that blocked a game tying PAT. Really must have been a very slow day at the office for ESPN to make such hay of such an obvious call.