Drake London scored the winning touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons on “Monday Night Football” in Week 2. He would come to regret what he did next.
While celebrating with teammates, the Falcons wide receiver mimed shooting a machine gun in the air, earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that turned the point-after attempt into a 48-yard kick. That was significant given that London’s seven-yard catch from Kirk Cousins had just tied the game at 21-21 with less than a minute left against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Fortunately for London and the Falcons, kicker Younghoe Koo made the PAT to take the lead in a 22-21 win. It was an impressive touchdown by London, who froze Eagles cornerback Darius Slay and got multiple yards of separation in the end zone with the game on the line.
London’s celebration was regrettable in another way, though, as his team had hosted the football team from Georgia’s Apalachee High School on Friday. A week earlier, a mass shooting at Apalachee killed two students and two teaches.
On Wednesday, London said he regretted not being more sensitive to gun violence and indicated he would never do the machine gun celebration again, via ESPN:
“It’s a trend around football right now to do that type of celebration,” London told ESPN. “It was my first Monday Night Football game. I kind of lost myself in there. I wasn’t happy with the position I put my team in.”
“There’s a lot of stuff going around in the world with gun violence that I don’t think I should have displayed there,” London said. “So, I’m not too happy with it and [you] probably won’t see that again from me.”
Drake London came up big for the Falcons on Monday Night Football. (Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris initially defended London by speculating London was pretending to shoot T-shirts into the stands, but he changed course Wednesday while speaking with reporters:
“Drake was a celebration that you don’t want to have happen because of the violence that goes on in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/falcons-wr-drake-london-says-he-regrets-machine-gun-celebration-after-td-vs-eagles-223519975.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-18 22:35:19
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