Drake London scored the winning touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons on “Monday Night Football” in Week 2. He would come to regret what he did next.
While celebrating with teammates, the Falcons wide receiver mimed shooting a machine gun in the air, earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that turned the point-after attempt into a 48-yard kick. That was significant given that London’s seven-yard catch from Kirk Cousins had just tied the game at 21-21 with less than a minute left against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Fortunately for London and the Falcons, kicker Younghoe Koo made the PAT to take the lead in a 22-21 win. It was an impressive touchdown by London, who froze Eagles cornerback Darius Slay and got multiple yards of separation in the end zone with the game on the line.
London’s celebration was regrettable in another way, though, as his team had hosted the football team from Georgia’s Apalachee High School on Friday. A week earlier, a mass shooting at Apalachee killed two students and two teaches.
On Wednesday, London said he regretted not being more sensitive to gun violence and indicated he would never do the machine gun celebration again, via ESPN:
“It’s a trend around football right now to do that type of celebration,” London told ESPN. “It was my first Monday Night Football game. I kind of lost myself in there. I wasn’t happy with the position I put my team in.”
“There’s a lot of stuff going around in the world with gun violence that I don’t think I should have displayed there,” London said. “So, I’m not too happy with it and [you] probably won’t see that again from me.”
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris initially defended London by speculating London was pretending to shoot T-shirts into the stands, but he changed course Wednesday while speaking with reporters:
“Drake was a celebration that you don’t want to have happen because of the violence that goes on in our country that we’re very sensitive of, but he had no ill will and no intent and that’s a mistake on all of our parts to have those things come out with what’s going on in our country and not being sensitive to those situations that we definitely are.
“We hosted the school that had the violence here and we’re really sensitive about all of those things and how those things happen for us and we do care. That was just Drake having fun with his fan base and his people up in his stands. You don’t really think about those things at the moment, so you got to be sensitive about all those things. We definitely are here at the at the Falcons.”
London, the eighth overall pick in the NFL Draft in 2022, entered this season with raised expectations after two solid seasons with the Falcons, mostly due to the addition of quarterback Kirk Cousins after some of the worst quarterback play in the NFL a year ago.
Through two games, London has posted eight receptions on 10 targets for 69 yards and one touchdown. The Falcons are 1-1 and play the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday in Week 3.
