Last year, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and former Patriots receiver Brandin Cooks got in trouble for a touchdown celebration that consisted of Cooks riding Gronk the human as if he were Gronk the racehorse.
Last night, Patriots defensive backs Patrick Chung and Duran Harmon staged a Karate Kid-inspired crane technique after Chung intercepted an Andew Luck pass. They both claimed after the game that the coordinated celebration happened without premeditation.
“It really is just spur of the moment,” Chung told reporters. “Sometimes we think about it but if you don’t play well then you don’t have these moments of celebration to begin with. That happened to be spur of the moment and it worked.”
“We didn’t even rehearse, it was off of the top of the dome, and it was a great time,” Harmon told reporters.
It won’t be a great time if coach Bill Belichick responds to the celebration the way he responded to the Cooks-Gronk piggyback ride.
“That was not planned or anything,” Gronkowski said last year. “We got yelled at. We’re not allowed to talk about celebrations. That’s what we got told. But, I kind of want to talk about it, but I kind of don’t because I’ll get in trouble, so I don’t know what to do. So, it just happened on the spot. It wasn’t planned.”
Players are now permitted by the league to engage in joint celebrations, but that doesn’t mean teams will allow it. And Belichick hasn’t been inclined to tolerate it.
