and let the pigskin fly. However, the ball found its mark in the arms of Oakland Raider Chris Johnson. Mr. Johnson dropped to his knees in the end-zone and gave thanks to God for his fortunate interception. More than Chris Johnson s knees hit the grass after that play. One of the officials tossed the un-beloved yellow penalty flag, and Chris Johnson was charged with ‌excessive celebration.‍ The Raiders were given the mandatory fifteen yard penalty and Mr. Johnson can be fined up to ten thousand dollars for falling to his knees and raising his hands to the heavens. Later Mr. Johnson made this statement, ‌I'm just getting on my knees giving my respect to God. I don't see how that's a personal foul or anything like that."Of course the NFL s stance is that the rules are the rules. They dogmatically point to the 2006 ruling prohibiting NFL players from celebrating in the end zoneby "going to the ground to celebrate a touchdown or using the ball as a prop." The moment Chris Johnson fell to his knees the rule was violated. But don t give up yet. This last week someone dug up an old video clip featuring the NFL's vice-president of officiatingexplaining that a player isallowed to drop to his knees if it's in prayer. Mike Pereira told the NFL Network last year that there would be an exception to the "going to the ground" rule for players who did so to "praise the lord". He said he'd allowed this because he didn't want to be "struck by lightning". Perhaps this is just one of those rules that need to be broken.
I don t play professional football, but it seems that the rule excessive celebration extends past the strips on the field and into the streets of our communities. People don t want us to praise God for what He does in our daily life. Even the mentioning of God in our workplace or the halls of our schools places us in jeopardy. So what will Chris Johnson do the next time he intercepts a pass in the end-zone? Well I suppose we will just have to wait and see, because that will be his decision to make. But what about you and me? What will we do next time we have a burning desire to yell out loud, ‌Praise the Lord?‍ You guessed it: that will be our decision too. My prayer is that when those times present themselves in our lives they will be forced to ‌throw the flag.‍