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The Lambeau Leap is a
touchdown celebration
In gridiron football, touchdown celebrations are sometimes performed after the scoring of a touchdown. Individual celebrations have become increasingly complex over time, from simple "spiking" of the football in decades past to the elaborately cho ...
in
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
in which a player leaps into the
bleachers behind the
end zone
The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...
after scoring. The celebration was popularized after
Green Bay Packers player
LeRoy Butler jumped into the
Lambeau Field
Lambeau Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the north central United States, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The home field of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), it opened in 1957 as City Stadium, replacing ...
bleachers after scoring a touchdown from a fumble recovery against the
Los Angeles Raiders
The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...
on December 26, 1993. The celebration has remained popular ever since, even as the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
tightened rules on touchdown celebrations in the early 2000s. Some safety concerns have been noted by players and staff, including inappropriate touching by fans and the possibility of an injury to the player leaping into the bleachers. Although uncommon, the celebration has been attempted by multiple players from opposing teams at Lambeau Field. The Lambeau Leap is an important component of the history and traditions of the Packers.
Background
The first Lambeau Leap occurred on December 26, 1993, in a historically cold game between the
Green Bay Packers and the
Los Angeles Raiders
The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...
.
With the Packers leading 14–0 in the fourth quarter, Raiders quarterback
Vince Evans
Vince is a given name, it is the anglicisation and shortened form of the name Vincent, as well as a surname.
It may refer to:
Given name People
* Vince Agnew (born 1987), American football player
* Vince Cable (born 1943), British politici ...
snapped the ball, rolled to his right, and completed a short pass to running back
Randy Jordan. Jordan was immediately hit by Packers safety
LeRoy Butler and fumbled the ball. The ball bounced directly into Packers defensive lineman
Reggie White
Reginald Howard White (December 19, 1961 – December 26, 2004) was an American professional football player who played defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. He played college football for ...
's hands; White turned around and tried to run to the end zone. However, Raiders guard
Steve Wisniewski
Steve Wisniewski (born April 7, 1967), nicknamed "the Wiz", is an American former professional football player who was an offensive guard for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, and later serve ...
got a hold of White and slowly tackled him.
As White was falling out of bounds, he tossed the ball to Butler, who ran the ball the rest of the way to the end zone for a touchdown.
After Butler scored, he dropped the ball, pointed to the bleachers, and leaped into the first row of fans, who then proceeded to embrace him for a few seconds.
Butler dropped back down to the field, recovered the ball, and celebrated the score with his teammates.
The Packers went on to win the game 28–0.
The win clinched the team's first playoff berth in 11 years.
Although other players would perform the Leap, it was popularized by wide receiver
Robert Brooks
Robert Darren Brooks (born June 23, 1970) is a former American football wide receiver who attended University of South Carolina and played for the Green Bay Packers (1992–1998) and the Denver Broncos.
Biography Early life
Brooks sta ...
, who would do it after every touchdown he scored. When the NFL updated rules regarding
excessive celebrations in 2000 and 2014, the Lambeau Leap was
grandfathered
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...
into the new rules, permitting it to continue, because it was an individual act of celebration that did not take on the form of taunting.
Safety concerns
A few safety concerns have been noted by past Packers players and commentators. Primarily, there have been concerns for the player performing the Leap, specifically as they come down off the wall. In 2003, during a renovation of Lambeau Field, the wall between the field and stands was lowered, allowing for an easier leap for players.
Players have also noted that they have been touched inappropriately while performing the Leap and have had various drinks and food spilled on them. Many players have also had trouble completing the Leap, either crashing into the wall too hard or not jumping high enough.
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL) removed fans from the first six to eight rows of the stands during the
2020 NFL season in order to limit possible interactions or exposure between players and fans. As a result, the Lambeau Leap was effectively banned for the whole season. This did not prevent players from leaping into the empty stands to reenact a Lambeau Leap.
Legacy
The Lambeau Leap has become an important part of the Green Bay Packers tradition. It is now an expectation that all Packers players who score at Lambeau Field perform the Leap. It also provides a connection between the players and the fans. In 2014, a statue was built outside of Lambeau Field commemorating the Leap. It featured a shortened replica of the end zone wall and four Packers fans, which allows visitors to pose for pictures while doing their own Lambeau Leap. Another replica wall was also built inside the
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
highlighting the history of the Leap while also allowing fans to perform their own Lambeau Leap.
The Packers have used the Lambeau Leap for various outreach events with fans. The Packers have hosted the Ultimate Lambeau Leap, a fundraiser event for the
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...
. In 2013, people who raised over $1,500 for the charity were given the opportunity to rappel down the side of Lambeau Field. Taking advantage of a pun on the word "leap", the Packers also promoted a
Leap Day
February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to leap years. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth's revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in m ...
event on February 29, 2020, that allowed a select group of fans to perform the Lambeau Leap at Lambeau Field.
In 2020, the ''
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' named the first Lambeau Leap as the 43rd greatest Wisconsin sports moment.
Notable leaps
Occasionally, an opposing player will attempt a Lambeau Leap, with mixed results. During the
2007 NFC Championship game,
New York Giants running back
Brandon Jacobs
Brandon Christopher Jacobs (born July 6, 1982) is a former American football running back, who spent the majority of his career with the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Coffeyville, Auburn, ...
faked a Lambeau Leap after scoring a touchdown, angering many Packers fans in the stands. Before a game against the Packers on September 20, 2009,
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver
Chad Johnson
Chad Ochocinco Johnson (born Chad Javon Johnson; January 9, 1978), known from 2008 to 2012 as Chad Ochocinco, is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football for Santa Monica College and Oregon State University, and pl ...
, then known as Chad Ochocinco, announced he would do a Lambeau Leap if he scored a touchdown, and then followed through by leaping into the arms of pre-arranged fans wearing Bengals jerseys.
Packers kicker
Mason Crosby
Mason Walker Crosby (born September 3, 1984) is an American football placekicker for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Colorado, and earned unanimous All-American honors. The Packers chos ...
performed his first career Lambeau Leap after kicking a game-winning field goal against the
Detroit Lions in 2019. This was unique as it was Crosby's 13th season with the Packers and came after a field goal, not a touchdown.
See also
*
Touchdown celebration
In gridiron football, touchdown celebrations are sometimes performed after the scoring of a touchdown. Individual celebrations have become increasingly complex over time, from simple "spiking" of the football in decades past to the elaborately cho ...
s
**
Ickey Shuffle
**
Spiking after scoring
References
External links
*
{{Green Bay Packers, state=collapsed
History of the Green Bay Packers
National Football League culture
American football culture
American football terminology