Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was hit with a fine for unsportsmanlike conduct after celebrating a team touchdown by pretending to shoot a gun.
Watson was celebrating with tight end David Njoku when the incident occurred.
#Browns QB Deshaun Watson and TE David Njoku both got fined $13,659 for this celebration where they pretended to shoot guns.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/LEcf9xrskd
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) September 23, 2023
Outkick reported that Watson was fined $13,659 for the celebratory mime, which the NFL viewed as a “violent gesture.” Sports Illustrated noted that the NFL described Watson’s actions–pretending to shoot a gun that was not there–as a “gun-themed” celebration.
Outkick observed:
The NFL plays 16 games on any given weekend and protects its players, coaches, and the field with men and women who carry actual guns. Teams travel to games escorted and protected by people with actual guns. Some clubs have people at their facilities armed with actual guns.
Many NFL players, being American citizens, are free to exercise their second amendment [right] to own guns. And, based on anecdotal evidence, a large percentage do.
But a pretend gun celebration is bad in the NFL’s eyes.
Ironically, while the NFL fined Watson for pretending to shoot a gun, the organization did not fine him for allegedly pushing a referee:
Looks like Deshaun Watson got away with putting his hands on an official. Usually a no-no. pic.twitter.com/EbEjDiyaxO
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 19, 2023
The incident with the pretend gun occurred in the Browns’ Week 2 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.