Sean Payton’s daughter, Meghan Payton, didn’t wait long to question the NFL’s latest batch of taunting flags on Sunday.
After a series of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in Week 2, including calls on Packers safety Javon Bullard and Saints wide receiver Chris Olave, Meghan took aim at the league’s enforcement standards and asked whether things have gone too far under Roger Goodell’s watch.
“Already 3 taunting calls today. Has the NFL gotten too strict with taunting penalties?” Meghan tweeted.
Bullard’s penalty came in the Packers’ Week 2 game against the New York Jets, when he was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after what appeared to be routine post-play back-and-forth. He had just made a defensive stop and stood his ground before officials threw the flag for taunting.
Olave also drew a controversial call on Sunday. The Saints receiver celebrated in front of Baltimore cornerback Marlon Humphrey after hauling in a catch near the end of the first quarter.
The weekend’s list didn’t stop there. Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey was flagged in the fifth minute of the team’s Week 2 game against the New England Patriots after Pittsburgh forced a fumble.
The criticism from Meghan lines up with where Sean Payton has stood before. Payton, who once served on the NFL Competition Committee, called out the way the taunting rule was being enforced in 2021. At the time, he said the league was over-officiating the rule and argued that the inconsistency came from leadership at the top rather than from individual referee crews.
The NFL, though, has made its position clear. The league says it will keep leaning hard into sportsmanship enforcement this season, with officials watching taunting, illegal celebrations and fighting closely.
That emphasis has shown up in other places too, including joint practices. The league backed that approach last month when it fined the Cowboys and Saints for a fight during a joint practice.
“The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship, including at joint practices, a point of emphasis over the past several years," the NFL said in a statement.
Taunting and illegal celebrations both carry 15-yard penalties, and the numbers show the league has been willing to call them. The NFL had 28 taunting penalties in 2025, up from 21 in 2024 and 18 in 2023. In 2021, the league reached 61 taunting penalties, its highest total in recent years.
NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson also laid out the league’s thinking on celebrations.
“There are plenty of ways for players to be able to celebrate. And they come up with some very unique and often entertaining ways. So we want them to focus on those and not the inappropriate areas," Anderson said.
The league’s message is simple: celebrate all you want, but if it turns toward an opponent or crosses into offensive or violent gestures, the flags can come out, and so can ejections.
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