PHOENIX -- The NFL has delayed plans to relax its anti-celebration rules so that commissioner Roger Goodell can first meet with a group of players to discuss the issue, Goodell said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after adjourning the 2017 owners meeting, Goodell said he was confident the league would have a freshened policy in time for the 2017 season.
"I'd like to meet with a group of players to try to get more input from them," Goodell said. "We also wanted to do a little more work on just bringing clarity to the rule while allowing players more ability to express themselves and celebrate. We want to see that. We obviously want to put [in] any reasonable safeguards against taunting and acts that we think reflect poorly on all of us."
The NFL's competition committee has been discussing the issue for months after a season in which players were penalized 30 times for celebration penalties, creating an outsized uproar from players and fans alike. Although the calls occurred on a small fraction of the season's 40,000 plays, their totals have risen sharply in recent years.
There were 20 such penalties in 2016, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and only three as recently as 2012.
Initial indications suggested the league would not change any rules but instead give referees more flexibility when determining whether celebrations violated pre-existing unsportsmanlike conduct rules.
Competition committee chairman Rich McKay said earlier this month that the league would create a video to help players understand the difference between legal and illegal celebrations.
That prompted Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett to issue a series of tweets mocking the idea of celebration "training." Similar sentiment might have prompted Goodell to seek out further player input.