NFL players, remove your helmets while celebrating beyond the end zone at your own risk.
Despite public comments from NFL senior V.P. of football administration Perry Fewell and the league’s decision to not fine Panthers receiver D.J. Moore for removing his helmet after a late-game touchdown catch against the Falcons, a source with direct knowledge of the league’s thinking on the matter tells PFT that there is no loophole to the helmet-removal rule.
Officially, the NFL had no comment on the matter. Unofficially, we’re told that the league believes a player should not remove his helmet while celebrating, even after running through and beyond the end zone.
Fewell’s remarks on ESPN, which were per the source “less than clear,” created the impression that the rule adopted in 1997 applies only on the playing field and in the end zone, and that once a player exits the end zone helmet removal is fair game. The league’s decision to not fine Moore, who removed his helmet after leaving the end zone, bolsters that impression.
The reality, however, is that the league doesn’t want players to remove their helmets to celebrate anywhere, and that the helmet should come off only after any celebration has ended, preferably in the bench area.
It would be helpful if the league would just come right out and say that. To do so at this point would be to admit that one or more people at the league office applied an incorrect interpretation of the rule, one that taken to the extreme would allow all 11 players on offense (or defense, for that matter) to celebrate by running through the end zone and then removing their helmets while celebrating.
