I decided to investigate why so many hits in the last few days came from a Chad Johnson story I posted in December. Looks like just a few days back, the NFL's competition committee decided they want to crack down on the touchdown celebrations that the fans love.

The league periodically gets tough on end zone fun and games, which would be just swell if we were living in, say, 1966. But it's 2006, and that whole "just do your job and go sit down" ship has long ago sailed. It's a new day, a day in which players spend as much time working on their next post-TD routine as they do on their pass routes. They do the Worm after scoring a touchdown, or they climb the goal posts like they're Spiderman, or they lay the ball on the ground and pretend to give it CPR, and guess what? The world doesn't end.

That's not to say that all the showing off in the end zone is an improvement over the old days, just that there's no sense in fighting it. It is, as they say, what it is. The old-school coaches and executives trying to nudge the league back toward its more stoic, reserved days are like the parents who were aghast at the swivel of Elvis' hips 50 years ago -- hopelessly behind the times and powerless to stop it.

The danger of all the end zone silliness used to be that it would enrage the beaten opponent, who would retaliate, and violence would ensue. But these days no one gets mad, with the rare exception, such as Owens' desecration of the Dallas Cowboys' star a few years ago. Strutting and preening are an accepted part of the athletes' culture now. The defensive back who is embarrassed by a receiver's end zone routine one minute will be showing off his own choreography after an interception the next. If the athletes can handle it, why can't the rest of us?

The players laugh, the fans laugh, but a few stuffed shirts see a sign of the apocalypse. They determine to rein in all this foolishness, even though it hurts absolutely no one. "Individual celebration was getting out of hand," said Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, the head of the competition committee. "The players' association was unanimous in wanting to get this under control."

Really? There are certainly a few wide receivers who aren't down with the program. One of them is Johnson, who vows that any new restrictions won't significantly affect his routines. "Of course you cannot stop someone as creative as me," he said. "How can this bother someone as creative as me?"

Whether what Johnson does is art or ego is a matter of opinion. But one thing creativity and egomania have in common is that they're both hard to rein in once they've been allowed to flourish for a while. The league is fighting a losing battle. The old-school hard-liners need to realize that times have changed and their desperate attempts to change them back are too little, too late. They might as well relax a bit and let the new breed have its fun.

I'm glad to see that Chad Johnson is not willing to let any new rules curtail his TD shenanigans.