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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Prince Grimes

Ranking the best NFL Week 12 touchdown celebrations, including the Zay Flowers bouquet toss snubbed by Lamar Jackson

After falling asleep on the Baltimore Ravens at Los Angeles Chargers game Sunday night, I woke up to see what I missed only to find out exactly what I suspected. Nothing. Well, nothing besides the celebrations. That’s what I missed.

The game didn’t appear to be particularly interesting. The Ravens won as expected and even covered the three-point spread, but they weren’t the dominant force they can be at times. And the Chargers were still the Chargers. So, yeah, celebrations were the most interesting the thing to come out of the game.

More specifically Gerald Everett’s imitation of Ray Lewis and Zay Flowers’ attempts to not embarrass himself in front of Lamar Jackson got a good chuckle out of me. They got me thinking, there were some good celebrations this week, somebody should rank them. So screw it, I’ll be the somebody.

6
Tommy DeVito's pinched fingers

DeVito comes in last because we saw him lean into his New Jersey roots with this celebration last week, although it is cool to see it become his thing. The DeVito family even joined in this time.

Nobody knows how long DeVito’s run as starting quarterback in the NFL will last, so he should get in as many pinched-finger celebrations as he can before it ends.

5
Gerald Everett's Ray Lewis dance

Everett gets points for being bold enough to do the Ray Lewis dance against the Ravens. But it would have been bolder if the game was in Baltimore, and he gets points deducted for failing to nail the landing. His slide was stiff and his knee didn’t get high enough on the final move. Good celebration but C- on the execution.

Here’s a quick cleanse:

4
Zay Flowers' bouquet toss

I really liked this celebration. Flowers should just break out the bouquet toss after every touchdown and make it his version of Jaylen Waddle’s waddle.

It’s only held back by the fact his own quarterback didn’t seem to enjoy it much. Lamar Jackson called it the worst celebration he’s ever seen. I think he’s being a bit harsh. The celebration could have been better choreographed, but it was good.

 

3
Dallas Cowboys eating turkey legs

OK, this is a few days old now, so I won’t rank it higher than third, but it still gets points for the sheer audacity it took to pull off. Just think about how confident the Cowboys had to be to plant turkey legs in the Salvation Army kettle for a celebration at just the right time. You have to know you’re going to blow out the Commanders, and also hope they don’t score enough to get any crazy kettle ideas.

2
Zay Flowers' PK celebration

Flowers redeemed himself (not that he needed to) for the first celebration with an even better one later in the game, following up his second touchdown with a successful penalty kick — which he then celebrated with Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark Siuuu celebration. This was sick.

1
Houston Texans' Baby Boy celebration

C.J. Stroud and the Texans take the top spot because this has a little bit of everything. It’s creative, well-coordinated, and it also has an element of “if you know, you know.” For those who don’t know, it’s a scene out of the classic movie Baby Boy, and it’s too good.

Here’s a look at the celebration and movie scene side by side:

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