Somewhere, Hingle McCringleberry is certainly outraged.
Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle celebrated his second touchdown against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field with a few pumps − but only two, which, uh, by rule, should be copacetic.
Not so.
Dowdle was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, which has been emphasized league-wide throughout this season, and Carolina kicker Ryan Fitzgerald missed the subsequently impacted extra-point try.
Dowdle’s score gave the Panthers a 13-6 lead, though his infraction made it easier on the Pack − they tied the game 13-13 shortly thereafter. However Fitzgerald saved Dowdle an embarrassing plane ride home by winning the game at the gun with a 49-yard field goal.
There is actually no two-pump rule that Dowdle violated, though popular culture might have fooled viewers − and apparently the sixth-year running back − into thinking as much, Dowdle holding up two fingers to officials as he left the field after being penalized.
“From my understanding and everything I’ve learned, we go over stuff like this every week in the meeting room. I definitely think you’re supposed to get two pumps,’ Dowdle said following the game. ‘Hopefully, I don’t get a fine.”
He helped make up for the gaffe with a 19-yard run on the final drive that got Fitzgerald into position for the decisive kick.
McCringleberry, a fictional football player portrayed by comedian Keegan-Michael Key, violated the two-pump rule during a famous ‘Key & Peele’ skit that mocked over-legislated NFL celebrations.
Dowdle learned the hard way Sunday that two pumps may be two too many nowadays.
“I missed it. I am not going to touch on that,’ Panthers quarterback Bryce Young said.
‘We won, so I am grateful for that.”