Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens says he’s confused.
In the thick of a high-scoring game with potential playoff implications for his team — one might accurately call it a shootout, but maybe we shouldn’t? — Pickens caught a, uh, bomb down the right sideline. That completion from quarterback Russell Wilson should have given the Steelers a first down inside the Cincinnati Bengals’ 15-yard line.
The Steelers were penalized 15 yards under a rule that dings teams when their players make gestures mimicking guns on the field.
Why didn’t it? Because an official threw a flag after Pickens — as young men playing a game fueled by adrenaline and machismo sometimes do — ran into the end zone and pointed, maybe at the Paycor Stadium scoreboard, maybe at fans, with two fingers extended. The Steelers were penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct under a rule that dings teams when their players make gestures mimicking guns on the field. (That drive for the Steelers ended in a blocked field goal a few plays later.)
Again, Pickens expressed confusion. In his postgame interview, he said of the official’s call, “He just thought the gesture was different.” He told reporters, “I was just doing a first down [celebration]; he thought it was something else.”
Believe Pickens, a third-year player with a growing reputation for immaturity, at your own risk, but you can also color me confused. There’s not just the ambiguity of certain gestures and the chance that officials might penalize players who aren’t thinking about guns or weapons as they celebrate plays. There’s also the irony.
For decades, the league has built its monopoly on a foundation of violence and aggression by men whose violence has frequently spilled off the field. Although it tried to tamp down violent hits and exuberant celebrations, neither has been eliminated. And they won’t be eliminated anytime soon.
Yet here we are, with the league drawing a line at grown men gesturing like schoolkids playing cops and robbers. Technically, the NFL’s unsportsmanlike conduct rule doesn’t specifically mention shoot-em-up hand gestures. Nor is the rule new, despite the attention that penalties like the one on Pickens have gotten this season. Officials flagged Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for what they said was his gesture mimicking shooting a rifle after he threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass in the Chiefs’ Nov. 17 game against the Buffalo Bills. The league also fined Mahomes (who’s won three Super Bowls, two NFL MVPs and three Super Bowl MVPs) more than $14,000.
The rule broadly outlaws “any violent gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive.” And league officials told The Athletic in October that it hadn’t made any changes to the rule or encouraged its referees to emphasize enforcement this season. Instead, the NFL argues that a new generation of players is just more likely to use shooting gestures in celebrations.
That may be so (it’s also almost impossible to prove), and I’ll concede that in a nation that has seen too much carnage from guns, it’s welcome that the popular multibillion-dollar enterprise that is the NFL is taking even small steps to send a message about violent imagery. Sure, it’s doubtful that the next person who picks up a firearm intending to do something heinous will have been inspired by Pickens or any of the multitude of players to have been penalized for gun gestures this season, but at least the NFL has given itself a respectable out.
It’s just that in a league run by some of the country’s most powerful and politically connected billionaires, it’s odd that the buck stops at holding players accountable for on-field celebrations. That feels like the very least we could do.
Consider: According to reporting in October by USA Today and based on federal campaign records, NFL team owners’ total political contributions to candidates for federal office grew to $28 million this year. Much of it went to support congressional candidates, many of whom have had multiple opportunities to respond to mass shootings with legislation and not just thoughts and prayers.
If NFL owners want to use their influence to make an impact on the prevalence of gun violence, then they could throw their weight and their money behind candidates who support basic legislation such as mandatory background checks, which polls show most Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, support.
I know, it’s fantastical to imagine NFL owners, whose top priority is protecting their investment in the country’s most popular and profitable sports league, would dare stick their necks out any further than they’d need to. It’s even less likely now that Donald Trump, a Republican who used his bully pulpit to cow the NFL into cracking down on players kneeling quietly on the sidelines during the national anthem, is headed back to the White House.
Tossing a flag every time a player scores and goes all Cactus Jack on the field suffices in sending a public message that violent imagery in an actual violent game is a no-no. It’s a shame that real-life shootouts aren’t higher on the list of priorities, too.