Style points may not show up in the box score, but they do in our weekly NFL celebration grades. Showmanship is as much an art as football itself, so it’s important to appreciate the celebratory displays that we’ll see every weekend during the NFL season. It’s also important to roast the players who clearly need to work on their celly game.
Let’s get to what we were presented in Week 14.
Cameraman go boom
Brandon Bolden may have had a big performance and picked up a thrilling win over his former team on Sunday, but he also had one of his two touchdowns upstaged by a kamikaze cameraman who took a vicious tumble in the background. Great job by the cameraman to steal the spotlight, but a tough look for Bolden to allow his glory to be hijacked like this. Grade: F
Saints afterparty
It’s not often that we include locker room celebrations here, but this felt necessary to address. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here but I can’t look away. It looks like a good time, but I can’t help but feel like I need Mark Ingram and Teddy Bridgewater to address whatever this is and break down the film for me in a step-by-step format. Grade: D+
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Raiders play hot potato
It was a pretty good weekend for the Raiders! Not only did a slippery field help them secure a rare victory, but they also had a pretty funny hot potato celebration after a Lee Smith touchdown in the fourth quarter. Everyone seemed to be rather enthusiastic about this celebration and their role in it, so points for that. However, it would have benefited from a more noteworthy finish than that weak spike. Grade: C+
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Big Man Dance
We have been blessed with so much great Big Man content over the past few weeks, and Bears lineman Bradley Sowell became the latest to get into the end zone on Sunday. Sowell was more than ready for the occasion, as evidenced by his brief-but-wonderful touchdown dance in the aftermath. Big Man Touchdown Celebrations are always graded on a scale because they’re rare and beautiful, like unicorns. Grade: B
Browns‘ campfire
Oh baby, is that a fire? Seems rather fitting because the Browns are heating up! (And by that, I mean they’re not in the basement of the AFC North for the first time in a long time. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere.) Although it may have taken a little while to come together, this was an amusing celebration by the Browns following a big Jarvis Landry touchdown. (Landry gets points for the pre-celebration celebration as well.) The Browns going from dumpster fires to campfires is the 2018’s glow up of the year. Grade: B+
Chicago’s bouquet toss
On a weekend where the Bears’ defense was able to completely stun one of the league’s top offensive units in the Rams, it seems fitting that they’ve got the top spot here as well. At this point, it takes a lot of creativity to come up with something that we’ve never seen before in the celebration department, but I don’t believe these eyes have ever witnessed a bouquet toss in the end zone prior to Sunday night. I feel like the only thing that would’ve made this better is if a couple of guys fought over it at the end. In any case, I suppose congratulations are in order for Jon Bullard. Grade: A-