In one of Sunday’s more outstanding blunders, Cowboys’ right tackle Marc Colombo was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when--after Jason Witten scored a game-tying touchdown--he took the ball from Witten and spiked it. The pair then did a chest bump. To this point, the exhibition didn’t warrant a penalty. But when Colombo fell to the ground, he broke an NFL rule, prohibiting players from going to the turf during celebrations.
Thus the flag, the fifteen yard penalty to be assessed on the kickoff, and a short field for the Tennessee Titans. As you may have heard, the Titans would go on and win that game on the drive in question.
On Monday, Phillips was asked about the incident.
"There's got to be emotion in the game," Phillips said, per the Dallas Morning News. "If you don't get excited about scoring, especially coming back from 14 points down, I think you lose what you have. I don't want no emotion with a team.”
Indeed, emotion is a good thing. Penalties, particularly ill-timed penalties are a bad thing. A very bad thing. Phillips knows this, ostensibly, and said that there would be no such penalties moving forward.
"Certainly we don't need any penalties,” Phillips said, “and we're not going to have any."
We want to believe him. We really, really do.
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