Refs are going to have their eyes glued to Lions receiver Jameson Williams and others on Sunday, and Dan Campbell is prepared for it
The league is coming after taunters
The NFL has been talking about it all summer long, and maybe some people thought they were being a little hyperbolic about it, but when it comes to taunting, obscene, or violent gestures, the league is planning to crack down on it in a big way. You saw that on Thursday night when Eagles’ linebacker Nolan Smith was flagged for this.
It’s super weak, but NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent specifically mentioned at the league meeting in April that the league wanted to do away with players hitting other players and then standing over them, taunting. This play cost the Eagles’ defense 15 yards. They’re not joking around. This has some Lions a little concerned because if the league had a King of the Ring tournament for taunting, Jameson Williams would be a one seed in it.
I know that sounds like picking on the guy for having fun, but he got fined $70,346 last year, and all of that was for taunting or obscene gestures. That’s a yearly salary for some people. It’s humping the field money for Williams. As funny as that was, it will cost the Lions 15 yards this year, and they’re not going to look past anything.
It’s not just a Williams thing. It’s for everyone in the league, and while it makes it less fun for the viewer, it adds a ton of anxiety because fans are worried their team might somehow lose because of it, they’re still going to do it anyway. Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked about how he has his team prepared for it on Friday, and this is what he had to say:
“Well, that’s, that’s the point of emphasis. They (NFL rules committee) said that, you know, we’ve known that in the spring. We know that training camp, so we know that’s coming. I mean, we already talked about that. That’s been talked about. So those guys know, they get it, and they are going to call it tighter.”
We also asked Campbell about it back in the Spring when these changes were first being told to teams.
“You tell them. Certainly there’ll be penalty for them. And those are the ones you can easily coach off of. It’s the ones in the pocket, you know. So they’re going to start fining, you know, they’ll fine everybody, the player. More importantly, though, if the player doesn’t get that, then it goes to the head coach and the owner, you know, everybody gets a piece of that fine. So look, you just say that this is what they’re trying to do away with. And you’re showing, and you don’t do it. That’s probably the best way to say it.”
Yeah, you read that right. Coaches can get fined for players’ taunting. It’s not an every-time thing. It’s more like a player gets fined so many times and the coach still hasn’t gotten through to them that the misconduct has to stop, the league will then fine the coach for not correcting the misconduct. That’s probably not something that Campbell has to worry about.
But the league is watching, and Campbell says his guys are ready. We’ll see how it goes.