NFL Head Coach Calls For Keegan-Michael Key To Teach His Players How To Celebrate Touchdowns

Professional football players need a celebration coach after the league took away their two pumps.

On Sunday, running back Rico Dowdle of the Carolina Panthers pulled out an old classic upon his second trip to the endzone that day, busting out a move that Key and Peele fans and NFL followers can appreciate – Hingle McCringleberry’s two-pump hip-thrusts. Popularized in a 2013 Key and Peele sketch which mocked the NFL’s stringent rules regarding excessive endzone celebrations, Keegan-Michael Key’s performance as a productive but frequently penalized tight end has inspired generations of athletes to recreate his iconic, unsportsmanlike antics. Now, the referees of the NFL are trying to put a stop to all pumps, regardless of the number, intensity or duration.

According to the rulebook cited in the Key and Peele sketch, players are allowed two pumps max during their touchdown celebrations. However, when Dowdle showed more restraint than McCringleberry and held back on his third pump this past weekend, he still earned a flag from the refs, prompting his coach to publicly ask for assistance from the OG as he navigates the post-pump NFL.

“We've got to be smarter in those situations,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales told reporters on Monday, "I might have to call up Keegan-Michael Key to get clarification on that."

Shortly before Canales made his public pley for Key to come in and help the Panthers out with the overzealous referees who have apparently banned the two allotted pumps, Key himself hopped on Instagram to express his dismay at the apparent rule-change and apologize to Dowdle for getting him in trouble:

The fact that even Fox announcer Adam Amin knew that, according to the fictional rulebook of football in Key and Peele, two pumps is the limit for a legal celebration should tell the NFL exactly how the football-watching world feels about their pump ban. Ever since 2013, those two pumps have been the two legs propping up the very art of the touchdown celebration, and to rob players and fans of such displays would be a disservice to the final product.

Then again, we're not going to say no to a brand new football sketch from Key and Peele.