The NFL relaxed rules governing touchdown celebrations this season and we’ve seen some elaborately choreographed ones from several teams around the league as a result.
We haven’t seen any from the Patriots, but it looked like we might have gotten a glimpse of one on Sunday when wide receiver Brandin Cooks jumped on tight end Rob Gronkowski’s back and rode as if he were a jockey after a fourth quarter touchdown pass.
After the game, Gronkowski was asked about the celebration. He said it wasn’t planned, but held back on saying any more after revealing that he’d been told that the first rule of Patriots touchdown celebration club is not to talk about Patriots touchdown celebration club.
“Yeah, that was not planned or anything,” Gronkowski said in comments distributed by the team. “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. We’ll just keep it there.”
We’ll just have to wait to see if Gronkowski spills the beans in a post-career memoir, although we’d imagine there will be far more interesting tidbits than the genesis of this celebration should the tight end go that route.