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Denver's Quinn Meinerz And Jaylen Waddle Left Hanging As NFL Tweaks Celebration Rules
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- Denver's Quinn Meinerz And Jaylen Waddle Left Hanging As NFL Tweaks Celebration Rules
(Isaiah J. Downing - Imagn Images)
The ultimate decision may be open to some debate, but anthropologists are pretty sure they've pinpointed Sept. 29, 1985, as the first time that anyone derogatorily described the NFL as the "No Fun League."
The culprit was Dave Lagarde, a columnist for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, LA, who wrote a column titled, "Pro Football: Hey [NFL commissioner Pete] Rozelle, let the players enjoy their victories."
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In the piece, Lagarde took umbrage with the league implementing an Excessive Celebration rule, writing, "Welcome to the NFL. That's No Fun League for all you conservative fuddy-duddies up there in the league office. Face it. The NFL can be boring and bland simply because it makes no allowances for individualism, creativity or non-conformity. Case in point: The No Fun League's no-taunting rule."
Not ones to ignore the opinions of the media or fans <sarc>, Rozelle and the league quickly softened its stance on expressions of individualism and before too long we had a legalized Ickey Shuffle in Cincinnati, Mark Gastineau's sack dance in New York and the "Fun Bunch" doing on-field gymnastics routines in Washington.
Today, not a weekend goes by without numerous players vaulting into the stands and the waiting arms of jubilant fans, cornerbacks clicking seat belts after breaking up a pass and 20-player end-zone dance routines that feature choreography that is so precise and imaginative it would make legendary choreographer Busby Berkeley weep.
But as usually happens when you give kids the keys to the candy store, a few bad apples will spoil it for everyone else. So, after seeing too many examples of simulated pistol, rifle and bazooka fire, graphic crotch grabs and dogs urinating on goal-line pylons, the league attempted to more precisely codify its celebration rules.
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The result, as could probably be expected, has been a number of outright head-scratching excessive-celebration fines handed out through the 2026 season's first four weeks.
The most curious of these was San Francisco 49ers' fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who was administered a pair of $14,296 fines for simulating the drinking of a beverage, which he insisted was some type of juice, relatively believable since his nickname is "Juice."
Then, in yet another in a long line of examples of an emphatic league considering the feelings of its players <double sarc>, on Oct. 7, the NFL announced it was rescinding the $14,296 "engaging in offensive demonstrations" fine it handed out to Juszczyk.
Additionally, the NFL released a statement meant to "clarify the line between player expression and conduct that may result in discipline," reiterating that the following actions are prohibited and could result in a 15-yard penalty, fine or both if performed on the field:
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Gestures that depict violence, including the use of guns or other weapons, or gang-related signs
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Gestures that depict smoking or drug use
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Gestures that are sexual in nature
I think everyone can get behind those edicts, but what of the fate of poor(er) - via matching $14,296 fines - Denver Broncos' offensive lineman Quinn Meinerz and receiver Jaylen Waddle?
Meinerz and Waddle fan afoul of the excessive-celebration police during the Broncos' stirring 30-26 defeat of the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 27. After Waddle scored a touchdown in the game, Meinerz waddled over to him - in a tribute to Waddle's surname - and mimicked rolling dice with his teammate.
Ruh-roh!
A few days later, Meinerz and Waddle learned they had been fined the standard - and oddly specific - $14,296 amount for what the league called "illegal celebrations and vulgar acts," although rolling dice does not fall under the purview of any of the three no-no's listed above. To add another layer of curiousness to the Meinerz/Waddle saga, back in 2017, the league said it had no issues with celebratory dice rolls, admitting that there was no way of knowing if the player or players was/were imitating a wholesome game of Yahtzee or an illegal back-alley craps game.
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And let's not forget the hypocritical fact that today the league is now so deeply embedded with gambling concerns that the NFL may actually stand for "Need Fortunate Luck."
To date, it appears that Meinerz and Waddle's fines have not been rescinded, so they'll need to keep minding their P's and Q's when the Broncos travel to SoFi Stadium to face the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday (2:05 p.m. MT on CBS) while knowing that Big Brother is always watching.
