Let's celebrate: NFL is allowing more fun | John Smallwood

I REMEMBER when the "Funky Chicken" touchdown celebration dance of Chichester High and Widener College alumni Billy "White Shoes" Johnson was the rage of the NFL in the 1970s.

Derived from a song of the same name by singer Rufus Thomas, the Houston Oiler's knees-knocking dance with his arms in the air was fresh and fun.

On NFL Films, John Facenda referred to Johnson as "this Michael Jackson in cleats" and Harry Kalas said he was a "Gene Kelly in cleats."

It was one of the first celebration acts in the NFL.

Then the copycats came - things such as the "California Quake" from Cowboys receiver Butch Johnson, the "Sack Dance" of Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau and the "Ickey Shuffle" from Bengals running back Ickey Woods.

Sure, they annoyed some opponents - Gastineau's dance after sacking Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo in 1983 led to a bench-clearing brawl.

Still, for the most part people liked the high-fives, somersaults, dunks on the goal post, elaborate spikes, dice rolling of the football and other such activities.

Then celebrations once reserved for touchdowns or big plays started happening after a routine catch for a first down or a less-than-spectacular tackle.

What once was considered fun entertainment became viewed as "look-at-me" showmanship.

And of course in a regimented, control-oriented business such as the NFL, individualized showmanship was discouraged.

In 2006, the NFL cemented itself as the "No Fun League" by making excessive celebration a 15-yard penalty.

Players who left their feet, used props or overly abused the football during a celebration were to be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The problem was that the players coming into the league in the mid-2000s had grown up watching the expanding celebrations of the 1980s and '90s.

When they were playing Pop Warner and high school football, adults laughed at their imitations of celebrations and told them it was part of the fun of the game.

Then they beat remarkable odds to make it to the NFL and the league says "no more celebration" - after they've spent a life-time showboating and grandstanding.

What the past decade in the NFL has yielded is a confusing, arbitrary, erratic and occasionally ridiculous enforcement of the excessive-celebration rule.

Depending on the officiating crew, the subjective determination of what was OK and what pushed the envelope too far changed week to week and game to game.

But finally, on Tuesday, commissioner Roger Goodell decided it was time to put some fun back in the NFL.

In a letter to players, Goodell said the league has relaxed its heavy-handed approach to celebrations.

It will now be legal again for players to celebrate by doing things like "making snow angels" or "using the ball as a prop" or "engaging in group demonstrations."

"Today, we are excited to tell you about another change that comes after conversations with more than 80 current and former players," Goodell wrote. "We are relaxing our rules on celebrations to allow players more room to have fun after they make big plays.

"We know that you love the spontaneous displays of emotion that come after a spectacular touchdown. And players have told us they want more freedom to be able to express themselves and celebrate their athletic achievements."

Call it a necessary adjustment to a new generation.

When you have baby boomers making up rules of celebration in a game now populated by millennials, somebody eventually had to give - and it wasn't going to be the players.

In the last five seasons, the number of unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties called for touchdown celebrations has increased steadily from three in 2012 to 29 last season.

Players were not going to stop testing the limits on celebrations and coaches were going to continue to pull their hair out because some guy put the team in a bind by getting a 15-yard penalty for shimmying a bit too much for an official's taste.

The league is still going to penalize celebrations that are deemed as offensive but those are easy to identify, explain and understand.

Clearly, something such as pretending to pull down your pants and moon the crowd - as Randy Moss once did as a Viking at Lambeau Field - will still draw a yellow flag.

Throat slashes and pretending to shoot guns will still be considered violent imagery, and I wouldn't suggest that any diva wide receiver get the spontaneous idea to start twerking.

If you celebrate a tackle for 30 seconds, you are likely to draw a delay-of-game penalty, but again, that's easy to understand.

A more difficult aspect will still be what is and is not considered taunting because celebrations directed toward an opponent will still be penalized.

That remains a gray area subject to broad interpretation.

Spiking a ball is OK but spiking a ball directed at an opponent is considered taunting.

That, however, could come down to an official's determination of proximity and not necessarily an intentional attempt to show some one up.

I understand that there will be those who are unhappy about this shift in policy, those who live by the "act like you've been there" mantra.

Not me. Speaking as someone who loved watching White Shoes Johnson's "Funky Chicken" as a kid, I appreciate the entertainment aspects of sports.