Excessive celebration-Pinstripe Bowl

[rulesmaven]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

Whether my expectations are realistic or not, there's no way you can justify a salute being flagged as USC in one game and in the very next game, on the same network, a crew from the same conference ignores the exact same act three times.

This.

Plus, I'd add that rules and their enforcement need to give players reasonable notice of what they can and can't do. Players watch sportscenter. They see what their opponent does. How can you have a situation where nobody knows what is legal and what is not?

The answer that one can just hand the ball to an official and run to the sideline and have nothing to worry about is not satisfying to me. If you want that to be the rule, fine. Make it the rule. It sure would help officials. But that's not the rule. So long as the rules allow for some spontaneous celebration, it's very hard to see how one can justify last night's call. If a rule is so ambiguous that even the same crew doesn't call it the same way every time, then you simply have to err on the side of not calling it unless it's something you feel confident most objective people would say, "ah, yes, that's what we want to stop."