This seems like old news, but as of yesterday, there's been an update about it.
Anyone remember Reggie Bush's TD last week, where right before he reached the end zone, he turned his face towards Brian Urlacher's direction and pointed at him, shaking his index finger?
Well, upon further investigation, the league office hit The President with a $5,000 fine for taunting; such a fine is the standard fine for a first offense for taunting.
Now, according to the NFL rule book, taunting is supposed to result in a 15-yard penalty. Meaning, the touchdown was supposed to have been waived off, and the down would have to be replayed 15-yards back, since the taunt was committed by the offense, and it occurred during the play, itself. However, no penalty flag was thrown, and understandably so, probably because the gesture made by Reggie Bush was ambiguous, and thus, was difficult for the refs to determine whether or not it could be interpreted as taunting at the time of the infraction. Lovie Smith could not legally challenge that, because whether or not a penalty was committed is not challengable according to the Instant Replay rules. Needless to say, the only way the lack of penalty flag affected the outcome of the game was the margin of victory by the Bears. As a matter of fact, had it not been for Reggie Bush's taunting, I think this game would've gone down to the wire, as Bush's taunt only succeeded in firing up the Bears' D.
With a hardass such as Roger Goodell in office as NFL Commissioner, don't be surprised if taunting fines, or fines in general, start increasing. He's already proven himself as such in the way he handled both the Albert Haynesworth stomping incident, and the T.O. spitting incident (which already showed an increase in spitting fines).
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