The Dallas Cowboys went into last weekend’s game on the road against the New York Jets desperately needed to take advantage of their winless opponents. The Cowboys were coming off a frustrating tie with the Green Bay Packers that followed two losses in their first three games.
Heading into the game, the Cowboys made a change to their offensive line. Coach Brian Schottenheimer, facing a series of injuries to his O-linemen, elected to give 2024 seventh-round draft pick Nathan Thomas his first NFL start, in the second-year player’s fifth-ever game.
Thomas was obviously exuberant over getting his big chance, but perhaps he was a little too exuberant because one outward display of his joyful emotions ended up lightening his wallet. The NFL Operations Department slapped Thomas with a $4,814 fine for his actions, which the league characterized as “obscene gestures.”
Overly Exuberant Celebration Deemed ‘Obscene’
The 6-foot-4, 331-pounder out of the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette had to wait until the 233rd overall pick to hear his name called, but he managed to stick with the Cowboys through training camp before being placed on injured reserve on August 28, 2024, for what was described at the time as an undisclosed injury, and missing his entire rookie season.
But the healthy Thomas has appeared in all five games for the Cowboys this season, and against the Jets played every offensive snap â all 60 of them â in the Cowboys’ 37-22 victory.
When the Cowboys scored a touchdown on a short pass from quarterback Dak Prescott to tight end Jake Ferguson putting the Cowboys up 23-3 with just 19 seconds remaining in the first half, Thomas got a little too happy. His hip-thrusting celebration earned him the financial punishment levied on him by the league.
Gestures Invoked ‘Hingle McCringleberry’
“Fans of the comedy series Key & Peele quickly recognized Thomas’s three hip pumps from a 2013 sketch featuring ‘Hingle McCringleberry’ doing the same, drawing a penalty only after performing the problematic third thrust in sight of a watchful official,” noted Todd Brock of USA Today Cowboyswire.
While the fine seems like a small amount, Thomas as a seventh round pick on a rookie contract is on the low end of the NFL salary scale, on a base salary of $840,000 for the season.
Coach Has Sense of Humor About Penalty
Schotteheimer, asked about the Thomas celebration which drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for Thomas and the Cowboys, seemed more amused than upset.
“It’s that whole thing about, ‘Hey, play to the edge; don’t go over the edge,’” the coach said during his regular weekly interview on a local radio station. “Three pumps is too many. If it’s two, you’re fine. But we had a really good time with it in the meeting. The guys loved it. And they were very large thrusts. They were not mini-thrusts.”
Though the Jets game marked the first start of Thomas’s career, the penalty was actually the second of his career.
During the game against the Packers the previous week, Thomas was flagged for lining up in an illegal formation. But that was a mere five yard penalty, compared to the 15 yards incurred for his hip-thrusting “obscene gestures” last Sunday.
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