'It's Gonna Be a Long Season': NFL Fans Fretting After 'Joke' Penalty Call in Week 1 of Preseason

It didn’t take long for the NFL’s rule against taunting to become the center of ridicule.

In the first quarter of a Week 1 preseason game between the 🏈New York Giants and 🏈New England Patriots on Thursday, Giants cornerback Aaron Robinson broke up a pass intended for New England wide receiver Kristian Wilkerson, as chronicled by NBC.

Robinson stood over Wilkerson after the play with his hands out at his sides in what could have been read as his message that the pass was incomplete.

Instead, Robinson was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct (taunting).

The Twitterverse reacted strongly to the penalty, with one user saying: “Lol if they’re calling taunting on the incomplete gesture……..it’s gonna be a long season.”

Another Twitter user said the penalty was “such a joke.”

“Unless Robinson said something inappropriate toward Wilkerson, there’s no way he did enough to warrant a taunting penalty. The officials need to let players express themselves at least a little bit after making good plays,” Nick Goss of NBC wrote in a story that called the penalty “laughable” in its headline.

At Outkick, David Hookstead fumed over the call.

“The taunting rule in the NFL has been openly mocked and ripped to shreds ever since the league decided to up enforcement last season,” Hookstead wrote. “While there’s no clear standard, it more or less seems to be that if you look at an opposing player, you might get flagged.”

“The rule is beyond parody, and fans shouldn’t have to pretend otherwise,” Hookstead wrote later in the article.

He said after only one week of the preaseason, enough is enough.

“The NFL needs to stop this nonsense immediately. We want to watch 🏈Football. We don’t want to watch the No Fun League,” Hookstead wrote.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.