Black, White, and Grey???

This issue is really interesting to me. I feel like it really speaks to issues around accountability, discretion, and zero tolerance. I encourage you to watch the video above, but here are the basics:

via ESPN.COM: BOSTON -- The 18-year-old senior was racing for a score as time wound down in the game against Blue Hills. Video shows Owens briefly raising his left arm and then lowering it as he approaches the end zone. The penalty nullified the touchdown, and Cathedral lost the game 16-14.

So its easy to understand the "excessive celebration" rule and how and why we would come to play in sports (especially high school atheltics - where sportsmanship can lead to life long lessons). But put into practice at that moment, it just feels wrong. Most can agree there is a difference between that and what Bills wideout Stevie Johnson did a few weeks back when he scored a touchdown the pretended to shoot himself in the leg (ala Plaxico Buress) and then mocked the Jet's own TD celebration. One seemed to be heat of the moment and reactionary while the other seemed to be calculated and choreographed. The rule via zero tolerance applies to both, but feels different when we allow each to be taken for its own merits.

I posted the video on twitter and had a quick back and forth with another follower and we both basically agreed that the rule makes sense but the application was off. But if you sit and think about it, the rule is the rule and was it really mis-applied? Many could argue yes, many no. For me, its really difficult to assess this situation. I enjoy taking real life examples and using them as teachable moments for the kids we work with but I struggle to really figure out what the take away is on this one? Is it that accountability is key and the moment you cross a line, whether its by an inch or by leaps and bounds, you have to be ready to accept the consquences. Or is the notion that there is a difference between intention and outcome and that rules have consequences that may miss the mark if we aren't using discretion and that judgement needs to be situational as much as it needs to be consistent (which is somewhat hypocritical I know).

Do our thoughts on this issue change if this the NFL as opposed to a high school game or that is was the championship or that it was in the forth quarter during the last drive? In the words of a tv commercial from my youth "I don't know, I'm asking". But I am very interested to put this in front of kids to get their opinion. At the very least it will lend itself to an interesting conversation.