Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is not happy about the NFL's decision to make the league more fun by loosening its strict celebration rules. Lewis ripped the new rules Tuesday for setting a bad example for young people.
"I'm not for that at all," Lewis, who is on the NFL Competition Committee, said of the change. "We had a good standard, and the whole standard has always been, you want to teach people how to play the game the correct way and go about it the correct way, and that's not a very good example for young people."
Lewis said he didn't like the idea of emphasizing individuals in a team sport.
"The rules were changed for a reason, and I thought we had a good outcome," he said. "Again, this is a team game, and ... I don't understand why we want to give in to individual celebrations."
Deadspin's Dom Cosentino made the only relevant response to Lewis' comments:
Good thing the Bengals have Vontaze Burfict, Adam Jones, and Joe Mixon to show the children there's a better way. https://t.co/Ugosihu3X7
— Dom Cosentino (@domcosentino) May 23, 2017
Joe Mixon fell to the Bengals in the draft because he punched a female student in the face at Oklahoma. Adam Jones, meanwhile, was arrested this offseason and made some incredibly inappropriate remarks to a police officer. And Vontaze Burfict is best known for head hunting Antonio Brown -- among other questionable football acts.
This is just brutal pic.twitter.com/hBsIAJIBwO
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) January 10, 2016
Yet, because they are all talented football players, the Bengals willingly choose to employ them. Lewis, the team's coach, is involved in making those decisions.
So, he probably shouldn't criticize the NFL's new celebration policy, which allows stuff like dancing and going to the ground to make snow angels.