Where Did TD Celebrations Come From?

Over the years, the touchdown celebration has evolved from just simply throwing the ball at the ground to using teammates as a human limbo bar to playing Duck, Duck Goose (as the Vikings did last year). But who started this hysteria? The answer is a man named Homer Jones, who is credited with the first ever spike in 1965 after he scored a touchdown in his first pro game.

Before Jones created the touchdown celebration, players would occasionally throw the ball into the crowd. (That isn’t much of a touchdown celebration.) When throwing the ball into the stands got out of control Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner at the time, decided to fine players who did it.

When Jones scored his first touchdown for the New York Giants, he went for the throw. But when he was about to release the ball, he remembered the fine. So instead he threw it at the ground, and thus the touchdown celebration was born.

Ironically, Jones regrets the move that made him famous. He told The New York Times that “it caused so many things, obscene things, confusing things, I wish I hadn’t started it.”

If it doesn’t affect the game too much what harm does it do? And the NFL has been losing popularity each year, so you never know what will bring the ratings back up. But maybe the players should stop with the whole human limbo thing. That’s a little over the top.

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