Drake London scored the game-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 pretended to fire a machine gun into the air, earning him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that turned the punt attempt into a 48-yard kick. It was telling, considering 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 victory. It was an impressive touchdown by London, who iced Eagles cornerback Darius Slay for several yards in the end zone with the game on the line.
London’s celebration was lamentable in another way, however, as his team had hosted Georgia’s Apalachee High School football team on Friday. A week earlier, a mass shooting in Apalachee left two students and two teachers dead.
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 in football to do those kinds of celebrations,” London told ESPN. “It was my first Monday Night Football game. I got a little caught up in it. I wasn’t happy with the position I had put my team in.”
“There’s a lot of gun violence going on in the world that I don’t think I should have shown,” London said. “So I’m not too happy about it and [you] “You’ll probably never see that from me again.”
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris initially defended London by speculating that London was faking T-shirts being shot into the stands, but he changed course when speaking to reporters on Wednesday:
“Drake was a celebration that you don’t want to witness because of the violence that’s going on in our country and we’re very sensitive to it, but he had no malice and no intentions and it’s a mistake on all of our part to bring things like that out with what’s going on in our country and not be sensitive to those situations, which we certainly are.
“We have the school that hosted the violence here and we’re very sensitive to all of those things and how those things happen to us and we do care about them. That was just Drake having fun with his fans and his people in his stands. You don’t really think about those things right now, so you have to be sensitive to all of those things. We’re definitely here with the Falcons.”
London, the eighth overall pick in the NFL Draft, entered this season with high expectations after two solid seasons with the Falcons, especially given the arrival of Cousins after some of the worst quarterback performances in the NFL.
Through two games, London has posted eight receptions on 10 targets for 69 yards and one touchdown. The Falcons are 1-1 and face the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday in Week 3.