There never was a mandate, those who made the NFL’s rules over the years recall, to suck the joy out of whatever Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson or Joe Horn might do to punctuate a touchdown.
There was no single incident that was the catalyst, as they remember it, and mostly there was no particular person or team campaigning to keep such things as drably buttoned-down as possible.
The NFL never set out to be the “No Fun League.”
It just happened that way, at least when it came to the sport’s illegal-celebration rules for its players.