NFL views improving sportsmanship as "a critical topic" for the 2025 season
League says violent gestures and taunting were up significantly in 2024, and that needs to change.
The NFL wants its players and coaches to be better examples of good sportsmanship in 2025.
NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent said that the league wants to emphasize everyone on the field conducting themselves the right way, and that there were too many examples of unsportsmanlike conduct — some penalized, some not — in 2024.
"Sportsmanship is a critical topic, one where we saw during the duration of the season, not where we want to be professionally," Vincent said. "Some of the things we saw, we want to make sure the game's always been about sportsmanship. We saw a couple actions like violent gestures up significantly, taunting up significantly."
Vincent said the vast majority of players and coaches support the league emphasizing cleaning up sportsmanship.
"Sportsmanship is something I think we all agree, Players Association, coaches, we want to make sure everyone is respecting one another as they go out for battle," Vincent said.
With the league office emphasizing sportsmanship, players and coaches are on notice that if sportsmanship doesn't improve, fines and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties will increase.
