Doug Baldwin's Illegal Touchdown Celebration in All-Pro Football 2K8

[RaychelSnr]

One benefit of making an unlicensed sports game is that the developers can include all sorts of crude dances and illegal celebrations that real sports leagues would instantly flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Football gamers may recall that Visual Concepts' All-Pro Football 2K8 let players hit one of five buttons after crossing the goal line (or making a sack) to perform a user-specified celebration. But if no button was pressed after reaching paydirt, the game would sometimes pick a secret celebration -- i.e., one that wasn't selectable from the game's list of 37 motion-captured TD routines.

One of those hidden animations (captured below) shows the scorer flipping the pages of an invisible newspaper while he squats down and plops the ball out from under his backside. This is a slight variation on the maneuver that cost Doug Baldwin 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct last night, when the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver pretended to pull down his pants and defecate on the ball after catching a touchdown pass from Russell Wilson in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIX.

NBC cut away from Baldwin's act right as it was beginning, and declined to show a replay of the incident after the flag occurred. All-Pro Football 2K8, despite this scene, was deemed suitable for "Everyone ages 10 and up," due to the "mild language" that its players use while taunting each other between the whistles -- which makes you wonder if Visual Concepts ever showed their take on the now-infamous "poopdown" celebration to the ESRB.

[bxphenom7]

This is so awesome. Just a small example of how 2k creating a generic football game, meaning no NFL or league license, could actually add value to the game.

[tjspeaks]

if it's in the game....

[mestevo]

Thought he pretended to defecate on the ball rather than poop it out... both of which are a penalty for using it as a prop.

Even if this were in Madden people would complain that it's not accurately called as a penalty

[kjcheezhead]

I can't say I'm a fan of the celebration but the thing I love about this game is I've logged 4-5 seasons worth of games and I've never seen this happen. Just when I think I've seen everything in it, something like this pops up and catches you off guard. I love it.

[caesar4k5]

This is reason why I still play this game..