Athletes should be free to celebrate. There is a lot of commotion made these days about athletes and their celebrations, especially with Cam Newton of the Super Bowl bound Carolina Panthers.
Newton has been turning heads this season as much for his celebrations as for his skills, which have propelled him to be the favourite for this season’s MVP award.
His go-to celebration is what is called the dab dance, which admittedly looks extremely silly. If you have not seen the dab dance and you don’t know what it is, it basically is a dance move where you put your face in your elbow joint and looks nearly identical to the way you are taught is the proper way to sneeze.
The dance itself looks ridiculous but the emotion is refreshing to see.
Players today are expected to be robots, who show no emotion because some fans and players feel that showing emotion and celebrating on the field of play means you are disrespecting the other team.
The problem is that sports are emotional, especially at the professional level and as a fan I love to see that emotion because there is not another vein in the entertainment industry where you can actually see raw and genuine emotion.
In movies, television shows and in music you see emotion that is scripted and supposed to be there.
People make a big deal out of emotional athletes all the time.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton likes to dance after his team scores touchdowns.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady likes to scream at everyone, whether something good happened or something bad.
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista flipped his bat after hitting what turned out to be a game winning home run in a playoff game in the fall of 2015.
Another Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter hit a game winning home run to win the 1993 World Series and celebrated by jumping up and down as he rounded the bases.
Then Calgary Flames forward Theo Fleury scored an overtime game-winning goal against the hated Edmonton Oilers and skated from the goal line to the blue line then got on his knees and slid past his own blue line while flailing his arms in celebration.
Former NHLer Tiger Williams used to ride his stick after scoring a goal.
Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin celebrated his third 50-goal season in 2009 by placing his stick on the ice and pretending it was on fire.
In soccer, you see players all the time who either take their shirt right off after scoring a goal or slide on their knees with the front of their jersey over their head.
There are many more examples of players who have celebrated and shown emotion and why not, they just did something exciting.
Post-game interviews with players have almost become boring because players are told not to get too emotional and are pretty much fed what they are to say. You hear common clichés like, we gave it 110%.
Then fans complain because the athletes don’t have much to say, then complain when they show emotion on the field of play.
You can’t have it both ways, sports are emotional and athletes should be free to express that emotion. Besides is it not fun to watch for the fans?
