On Sunday night, Eagles tight end Brent Celek struck the Captain Morgan pose after scoring a touchdown during Philly’s 20-16 loss to the Cowboys.
As it turns out, Celek’s stunt was intended to be the first act in a much broader marketing ploy.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reports that the league has slammed the door on the effort to persuade more players to strike the Captain Morgan pose.
“A company can’t pay a player to somehow promote it’s product on the field,” league spokesman Greg Aiello told Robinson. “Every league has the same rule. . . . It’s come up before, companies trying to use our games and then players for ambush marketing purposes.”
The folks at Captain Morgan had planned to announce that $10,000 would be donated to Gridiron Greats, a group that raises money for retired NFL players, each time a current NFL player made like a dog conducting target practice on a hydrant during the regular season. In the playoffs, the number would have spiked to $25,000. For the Super Bowl, the stakes would have been raised to $100,000.
Celek caught wind of the promotion and opted to try it out prior to the official announcement. Though Celek won’t be fined, Aiello told Robinson that any player doing it in the future will face a “significant” penalty.
Three years ago, Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was fined $100,000 for wearing a Vitamin Water hat during a Super Bowl press conference.
Two years ago, KFC offered to donate $260,000 to charity in the name of any player who performed the wing-flapping portion of the “chicken dance” for at least three seconds during Super Bowl XLII. The league reacted angrily, but not too angrily. Last year, KFC became the official wing sponsor for the NFL playoffs. KFC is now a full-fledged NFL sponsor.
So maybe, eventually, Captain Morgan will be the official pirate rum of the NFL.
Buy it by the half-gallon -- but please drink it responsibly. We wouldn’t want you to fall down when trying to strike the pose after scoring a touchdown while playing Madden.
