Small Tales #1 (Super Bowl Edition): Reception in the End Zone
In 2002, the NFL had a problem. Touchdown celebrations were getting...out of hand. Even if some were written in permanent ink.?
In the name of sportsmanship, the league decided to rein in touchdown celebrations for the 2003 season. Specifically, they made it illegal for players to bring any outside objects onto the field.?
When Joe Horn, wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, saw the new rule, he took it as a challenge. And he was up to the challenge.?
Horn’s four-year-old son was too young to attend night games when he had school the next day, no matter how much he begged his parents to go. In week 15 of the season, as the elder Horn was getting ready to leave for the Saints’ Sunday night game against the New York Giants, he told his disappointed son, “I’m gonna call you.”?
Joe Horn caught a touchdown pass in that Sunday night game, in front of a nationwide TV audience that included his young son. But that was just the beginning.?
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Horn had devised a unique celebration to put an exclamation mark on his touchdown. With the help of teammate Michael Lewis, he retrieved a cell phone lodged in the padding around the goal post, then pantomimed the promised call to his son. Since he had stashed the phone there before the game began, he technically wasn’t bringing an outside object onto the field.?
While the “loophole” in the rules didn’t quite play out as Horn hoped—he incurred a penalty and a $30,000 fine—his cell phone celebration became a legend of NFL lore. More importantly, it allowed his son to feel included in his father’s success.?
It wouldn’t be their last celebration together. That four-year-old boy, Jaycee Horn, would grow up to become a standout NFL cornerback in his own right. He made his first Pro Bowl in 2025.?
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The Aha: As humans, we’re wired to celebrate wins, both big and small. Celebrating wins together increases motivation and team cohesion.?
The Action: Identify a recent team win or milestone to celebrate in a fun, social way this week. If nothing recent comes to mind, plan your next “touchdown celebration” so you have the cell phone already planted in the goal post when the time is right.?