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Come on, NFL: Terrelle Pryor fined for harmless, fun LeBron James celebration

The NFL has reasons why television ratings are down. It must be the presidential election. Sure.

I wonder if the NFL ever wonders if stripping out so much joy from the game has affected anything.

Cleveland Browns receiver Terrelle Pryor scored last Sunday, and paid homage to Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James’ pregame chalk-toss ritual in his celebration. There’s no taunting. No disrespect. Nothing that would make any sane person mad. It was actually pretty cool, one Cleveland player giving a shout-out to another.

Yet Pryor was hit with a 15-yard penalty for using the ball as a prop (by the way, Santonio Holmes did the same chalk-toss celebration after his famous Super Bowl touchdown catch but officials didn’t call it), and then was fined $9,115 by the NFL according to multiple reports. $9,115! I’m not sure of your financial situation, but to most people in the world, $9,000 is a lot of money. And Pryor got docked that for celebrating a touchdown (we’ve heard so many stories of athletes being broke in retirement, yet the NFL and it’s $13 billion in annual revenue has no guilt fining them small fortunes over nonsense). So not only is the NFL sucking the life out of the game, they’re fining their own players exorbitant amounts for absolutely harmless touchdown celebrations.

And ratings are DOWN, you say? No way!

I don’t understand why the NFL wants to make the game less enjoyable. The people who get worked up over celebrations are wound too tight and not the majority either. I get taking out the celebrations mimicking violence (thought Josh Norman’s bow-and-arrow wasn’t exactly frightening children) or the extreme ones like Terrell Owens standing on the star. But we know those when we see them. Look at the Pryor celebration and tell me that: A) anyone has a problem with it, B) it’s so egregious the Browns should lose 15 yards and Pryor should get $9,115 taken out of his pocket. Unbelievable.

The NFL seems to be scrambling to explain to teams why television ratings are down. Some of it is overreaction (the NFL is still light years ahead of any other sport for ratings) and some is explainable. But maybe the league should take a look at how dreary it’s trying to make its product and change some things for the better. That might help.

Terrelle Pryor celebrates a touchdown in Week 4 (AP)
Terrelle Pryor celebrates a touchdown in Week 4 (AP)

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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!