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Brandin Cooks to NFL: I'm still doing my bow-and-arrow celebration

frank schwab
NFL writer

For some reason the NFL decided to single out Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman for doing a bow-and-arrow celebration this season. The league fined him $10,000 for it.

The league hasn’t fined New Orleans Saints receiver Brandin Cooks for the same celebration. But maybe they will soon.

Cooks has used the bow-and-arrow celebration for all touchdowns since last season, and has gotten his Katniss Everdeen on for big first downs too (seriously, if I was Norman I’d be asking some questions about why he got fined when Cooks has not). Cooks goes by “thearcher10” on Instagram, NOLA.com’s Larry Holder said, and he’s not changing his celebration. That will put the NFL in a tough spot.

“I’m going to figure it out, but I’m not going to change it,” Cooks told NOLA.com. “The league will have to deal with it. The reason for why I’m doing it and what’s behind why I’m doing it doesn’t have anything to do with violence.

“So I’m not going to change what I’m doing to satisfy what the league wants. That’s not what I’m here to do.”

What gave Cooks the inspiration for the celebration? A Bible verse. He told Holder he does it for a verse in which a boy named Ishmael used his archery skill to survive in the desert.

Putting aside that it’s practically criminal for the NFL to steal its players’ money with five-figure fines over petty nonsense like this, who was offended in the first place? Is there one person in America who saw Norman or Cooks pretend to shoot an arrow into the air with a make-believe bow and thought it condoned violence? The NFL should probably consider letting some of this stuff go.

Hopefully Cooks keeps doing his celebration, only so we can hear the NFL explain why him pretending to shoot an arrow after being inspired by a Bible verse is a good reason to take $10,000 out of his pocket.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!