Lamarr Houston Called Out by Mike Ditka for Celebration
By Chase Ruttig
Lamarr Houston’s forgettable first season with the Chicago Bears came to an end thanks to a celebration of a garbage time sack of a backup quarterback, something that legendary Bears player and coach Mike Ditka isn’t too happy about. Ditka even took the time to mention Houston’s costly celebration in his weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times, taking on what he feels is a celebration epidemic in the NFL that in this case had a result that had extremely negative impact on the Bears season as they lost yet another defensive player due to Houston’s sack dance.
Ditka, as old school as they come, feels that the Bears lost a good player in Houston for a silly reason and that players on teams should tone down on all the dancing after every play. Something that fans of the Bears as well as the Lions could relate to in seeing valuable defensive players go down for making plays during the course of the game that may not have required such enthusiastic celebrations.
"4. How would you have reacted when Lamarr Houston blew out his knee celebrating a meaningless sack late in the game?It’s doesn’t matter how I would have reacted or how they reacted. The problem is they lost a good football player for a silly reason.You don’t celebrate, first of all. You play the game. The only time you celebrate is after the game — if you win. If you don’t, then don’t celebrate.You know, every time a guy makes a play, there has to be all kinds of gyrations and actions. It actually becomes embarrassing to the game. The game is bigger than the people playing it. These people don’t seem to understand that."
Houston has plenty of time to make his career in Chicago a success, but his first season with the Bears will always be remembered for hurting himself during a celebration in a game where his team was down over three scores after sacking a backup quarterback. Already having a season of low production for a Bears team with a losing record, Houston will need to come back strong in 2015 to prevent Bears fans from regretting the 2014 Free Agency deal to bring in the former Raiders defensive lineman for the long term.