Allen Park — Four days later, the Detroit Lions still don’t know why they were told to stop.
If you were paying attention in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, you might have noticed receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, as well as running back Jahmyr Gibbs, debuting a new celebration, pretending to pick their nose and flick an imaginary booger to signal a first down.
Each member of the trio only got to hit the celebration once because, according to St. Brown, a referee told receivers coach Scottie Montgomery to communicate to the players that they are not allowed to do that.
“Why is that bad? I want to know,” St. Brown said on his podcast this week. “NFL, why can’t I dig in my nose and flick it? There’s no way. What is bad about that? Is that disrespectful? I’m confused. Is that derogatory? I wanted to do that all game so bad.”
The NFL recently banned using a nose wipe gesture to signal a first down. The celebrations on Sunday, to be clear, were different from that. But perhaps that was related to the referee’s decision.
“I don’t really know what that was about,” Williams said. “We just stopped it, trying to avoid the fines.”
Williams said St. Brown brought the idea for the celebration to him during practice ahead of the game: “He was like, ‘We should do this.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s tough. We’re going to do it.’ So, we did it, and it just all happened to be in the same drive. That was the good part.”
St. Brown and Williams were dominant versus the Rams, combining for 298 yards and three scores on 20 catches. The offense was on fire through two quarters (24 points) but hit a lull after halftime, opening the third quarter with back-to-back-to-back three-and-outs. The defense struggled throughout, leading to a 41-34 loss.
Following a touchdown from Williams late in the second quarter, St. Brown lined up on one side of the end zone while Gibbs stood next to Williams on the other end. Gibbs and Williams, two of the fastest players in the NFL, pretended to race one another. That idea belonged to Williams, he said.
Offensive coordinator John Morton, a former player who posted a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at the 1993 NFL Scouting Combine, joked, “Back in the day, I’d be in that race,” while also declining to comment on who he thinks is faster between Gibbs and Williams.
“I always hear that,” Williams said of Morton’s 4.39 speed. “I think I’ve got to go look up and see some videos or something. I’m gonna go check when I get back in the locker room.”
Will we ever see a Gibbs vs. Williams race?
“I don’t know,” Williams said. “Maybe. Soon.”
rsilva@detroitnews.com
@rich_silva18
