You want fun, then go play football with your buddies. You sound like the pencil necked geek who never played football on a team. When we played on Sunday, we didn't go have fun, we went to win. You had fun in practice, not when your playing the game.
I played three sports (including football) and had college offers for all three. I didn't particularly enjoy them enough to revolve my life around them, and my football offers weren't full scholarship offers. So I'm scrawny, white and nerdy, but hardly a stranger to what the game of football is. This, however, does not qualify me to say what is wrong and what is right, just because I've played before. In any way, really. I have a friend who might as well be Bill Belichick and he has one leg. He didn't play football, and he jizzes more football knowledge than you and me could think up in a week.
You're is the version you were looking to use in that last sentence, by the way. Also in that sentence, you admit that you are playing a game. So, whether your personal goal is to have fun or not, it is a game that we do not need to function as a society. So, it is unnecessary and for entertainment/self-fulfillment purposes, and this means that it does not need to be taken any more serious than Backgammon (ESPECIALLY at the high school level). How you feel it should be played is opinion, not using logic regarding this specific call. Moving on to your next ridiculous paragraph.
And how does having the kid developing a drinking problem the refs fault? He made the right call.
It's called a sense of humor. Acquire one.
The rule of not celebrating was put into after a season was over. It wasn't a mid season call. It's also not the referees place to decide if a call should or shouldn't be made. The board decides whats allowed and what's not allowed. If he doesn't make that call, and some mom on the other team on the other side starts to bitch for missing a call, he could be out of a job.
That's fair to a certain degree (hardly can assume that if he doesn't make the call he gets hounded and fired, that's quite the jump to conclusion, and a highly unlikely one at that, due to the harmless nature of the penalty. Hardly makes me feel like anyone in the stands watching it would have filed some sort of complaint, they'd have just gone 'well shit, we lost because that guy scored'. Or they'd have come back and won anyway, who knows), but it hardly justifies the horrible judgement for what this particular referee deems 'celebration' or 'taunting.' That's what is trying to be prevented - taunting. You're allowed to tackle your own player in joy in the endzone in high schools - why can he not be allowed to instinctively raise his hand in what could be the most accomplished, happy moment of this kid's entire life (up to this point)? It cannot be justified by saying 'it's a rule', because the rule is subjective to each referee's ability to judge, on the fly - a very hard thing to do - whether or not it is celebrating or taunting. It's subjective because there are not specific directions in the rule book for what to do when someone raises their hand instinctively as they run in the remaining ten yards of a sure TD, to win their team a state title.
Taking out celebrations isn't a big deal. I played football for 6 years and the teams I played on never had an issue with it.
Who is to say this kid was celebrating anyway? What if he was fixing his shirt? What if he was pointing to God? Do they allow that? Is that celebrating or freedom of religion? I think YOU have no idea how to define logic, brother. You're using your own experiences as examples, yet show NO effort to acknowledge the obvious fact that just because these are your experiences does not make them the 'way it should be' in any logical way. They are simply your experiences. I do not give a shit about your experiences.
We do have rules against anger. You can't yell at other refs or players. If a ref heres you cussing towards him or the opposing team, that's a flag. Ever see a player throw his helmet on the field? That's a flag.
These are not enforced as hard as celebration penalties, in any way, and coaches are constantly yelling at referees while players are constantly talking shit to each other, even on the high school level (not every game ever played obviously).
Anyway, we can logically conclude that yelling at refs or players, cussing towards refs or opposing players (ridiculous that 'bad words' can even exist, but that is another conversation) and throwing your helmet are ALL much more worthy of a flag than a simple raising of the hand for a split second. Such a cacophony of bad/off-base points in your post.
Hell, my team got flagged once or twice for having players stand too near to the feild from our side of the field.
So?
I think you're confused what "logic" is.
edit:
Do you even watch football?
You think incorrectly, and yes.
Do you ever allow anyone else to have an influential perspective on yours, or do you just stick to the way you think, because it must be right?
Trust me, if you or anyone else in here makes some amazingly valid point that makes what I'm saying illogical, I'll be the first to admit it.
