WhatFinger


15 yards for facing Mecca?

Here we go: NFL penalizes Chiefs player for Muslim prayer following touchdown



The NFL says the penalty wasn't about the praying, but rather about the demonstrative nature of it. At any rate, Husain Abdullah of the Kansas City Chiefs got slapped with a 15-yarder last night for what you see above following a touchdown toward the end of the Chiefs' surprising 41-14 beatdown of the Patriots on Monday Night Football.
I'm really curious to see how the readership here, which contains few fans of Islam but lots of fans of religious freedom, will react to this one. Yahoo Sports has more:
In a move that is sure to generate some discussion, Husain Abdullah of the Chiefs was flagged 15 yards after kneeling in the end zone in Muslim prayer after scoring a touchdown off an interception of Tom Brady. The unsportmanlike conduct penalty Abdullah received sparked a quick outrage on Twitter where it was noted that plenty of Christian players mark their scores with a sign of deference, reflection or tribute to their higher power. Abdullah took the high road after the game and said he thought he was penalized for sliding into the prayer, though the head referee cited "falling to the ground on the knees" in announcing the infraction. While some fans mistakenly said the NFL rulebook provides an exception for praying players, that isn't exactly true. The excessive celebration rule is actually kind of vague with players "prohibited from engaging in any celebrations while on the ground." Prayer is never specifically mentioned, though Pereira's comment generally embodies the permissive view that NFL officials usually take toward religious exhibition.

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I don't think I've ever seen a Christian player penalized for a post-touchdown prayer, and clearly there would be a huge discussion here and elsewhere if it ever happened. Cris Carter used to get on a knee and point to Heaven during his days with the Vikings, although that was in a different era when the officials weren't as persnickety about players expressing themselves. I don't like to see a person bowing down to anyone other that Christ, but seriously, is that a matter for the NFL to concern itself with? What exactly did Abdullah do here that warranted the penalty? It seems to me the bigger issue is why the NFL has decided to be such Nazis about post-touchdown demonstrations of any kind. I agree there needs to be some sort of line drawn for true unsportsmanlike conduct, but I don't see why celebrating (or giving thanks, even to the wrong source) after a touchdown falls into that category. Somewhere along the line it seems like the NFL got way too concerned about people being offended by this stuff. You could never have stuff like, say, the old Redskins' Fun Bunch celebrations of the '80s (and these days we can hardly even have the Redskins!), because the NFL is so terrified someone might be bothered by it. But I don't know. What do you think? Is the NFL discriminating against Abdullah because this was a Muslim thing? Or because it was a religious thing of any kind? And if that's the case, are Christians next? UPDATE: Some readers are saying Tim Tebow was penalized for praying after a touchdown. I honestly don't remember that. I know he caught a lot of flack for speaking boldly of his faith, and I'm convinced he not in the NFL today for that very reason, but an official throwing a flag . . . I'm not definitively saying it never happened, but I do not remember it. If it did, tell me the details.


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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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