Jones-Drew Fined for Celebration

Maurice Jones-Drew, tail back for the Jacksonville Jaguars, was fined $7,500 for his post-touchdown celebration. Jones-Drew had just scored a 52 yard rushing touchdown in last week’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and decided to have himself a little celebration. Jones-Drew staged a celebration where he used the goal post, simulating it as an ATM machine. “It was pretty cool,” said the second year Jacksonville tail back afterwards. “We laughed our way all the way to the bank.” However, the result of it was unexpected and now he really does have to make a withdrawal from his bank account, which he for sure is NOT laughing about.

The league fined him the $7,500, stating that he violated the rule that says that a player cannot use props as part of their touchdown celebrations. The play came during the second quarter of the game, when he shot through a hole and flew past the secondary Kansas City’s’ secondary defense for the 52 yard score. Now what he did next is where the fine comes in. After the score, he dropped the ball and then went to the goal post and, as a few team mates watched him, he simulated punching in his account number and then removed his deposit. He was surprised when he heard that he was going to be fined by the NFL pointing out that he did not use the ball as a prop, which is not permitted. League officials shrugged it off, stating that the goal post is considered a prop and that a player cannot use it as a part of a rehearsed celebration, and therefore they fined him for his actions. Nobody yet knows whether or not Jones-Drew will appeal the fine or not. His base salary for the 2007 season is roughly $360,000. It was Jones-Drew’s first touchdown of the 2007 season, who was a second round draft pick from UCLA. In his rookie season he rushed for 941 yards and 13 touchdowns. So far in the four games he’s played this year, he’s rushed for only 182 yards and that single touchdown. Now normally I would agree with the league on this, but only if the ball had been used in the celebration. In this case it's more of a league decision, they say he used the goal post as a prop, but he never really did anything with it, did he? He just walked up to it and made it LOOK like he was putting his account number "into" the post, but it's nothing like when Joe Horn of the New Orleans Saints, after his touchdown, went over to the goal post, LIFTED UP the cushioning part of it, and took out a cell phone. I don't think I agree with the league this time though.