Jameson Williams apologized to his teammates for the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that led to a missed extra point in the Detroit Lions’ 16-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last week and said he has to be “smarter” about his celebrations in the future.
“It’s something I can control for sure,” Williams said. “But I’m just going to move past it. It’s a new week, we got a new game, and that’s just that.”
Williams scored the Lions’ only touchdown on a 40-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter and celebrated by jumping on the goalpost in the back of the end zone.
The celebration drew a 15-yard penalty and Jake Bates missed the ensuing extra point wide right from 48 yards in windy conditions.
Normally, PATs are 33 yards.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said after the game he told Williams he made “a hell of a play (but) don’t do that again.”
The Eagles scored on the next drive to take a 13-6 lead into halftime and never trailed again, but Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said Thursday that Williams wasn’t at fault for the missed kick.
“If you’re a specialist or in my job, I mean it doesn’t matter,” Fipp said. “They say, ‘Field goal,’ then we go out there and kick a field goal. The ball’s on the 30, it’s on the 30, it’s a 48-yarder and if it’s on the 15, it’s a 33-yarder. And it really doesn’t matter. So, I don’t get too caught up in the, ‘Oh, I can’t believe that happened to us.’“
Williams, one of the Lions’ most explosive and entertaining players, has said he enjoys trying to excite the crowd with some of his touchdown celebrations.
He flipped into the end zone on one score earlier this year and last year he was fined for making a sexual gesture on the ground after a touchdown.
Williams insisted he didn’t know his celebration last week was a penalty until he watched Bates attempt the long extra point as he sat on the bench, and he scoffed at an insinuation his celebrations are a problem, saying, “You think it’s something I do often? I feel like I only got it one time a year.”
“I apologized to Jake, I apologized to (holder) Jack (Fox), I apologized to Coach, everybody,” he said. “I didn’t look at it like that. They told me it wasn’t my fault, but I feel like it was my fault in the moment. We just got to make plays and be smarter.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions’ Jameson Williams says he needs to be smarter after celebration
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
