Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson is continuing to be a lightning for criticism of his post-TD celebration against the Jets on Sunday, in which he pretended to shoot himself in the leg in an homage to Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Johnson will likely be fined for his TD celebration, based on league rules against the simulation of any gun action.
Johnson drew two “finger pistols,” pretended to shoot himself in the leg, then did a flying run around the end zone mocking a Jets TD celebration, then threw himself on the ground in a “plane crash.” Going to the ground as part of the celebration drew a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Bills then muffed a squib kick on the ensuing kickoff, and the Jets quickly scored, killing the momentum that the Bills were bringing into halftime.
Johnson has since texted an apology and left a voice mail message for Burress, according to Burress on 1050 ESPN radio. Burress went on to say, “I don’t want everybody to say he’s a bad guy because he made a mistake. I’ve made a few in my life,” Burress said. “I have a lot of respect for him as a player. And I think he’s going to rebound from that.”
It’s nice that Burress is taking the high road on this one.
Johnson has said that he will not be doing any more extended TD celebrations, based on a conversation he had with head coach Chan Gailey. “He was telling me I have to be smarter. I’ve got to be more aware of the situations and rules,” Johnson said. “I’ll listen to every word that he says. That’s my coach.”
Gailey said he would leave any further disciplinary action up to the NFL. “If I benched everybody for every dumb mistake that was made, there wouldn’t be any coaches or players out there because we’ve all made dumb mistakes,” Gailey said. “Everybody gets happy about scoring. I don’t want him to not like it. But at the same time, you’ve got to be under control.”
Now, they just need to focus on that dropped, wide-open pass at the end of the game.
