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NFL to reportedly consider negating touchdowns for taunting penalties

Golden Tate's game-winning touchdown against the Rams may have been called back under different rules. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The NFL will reportedly consider negating touchdowns for taunting penalties, which would've affected Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate's game winning 80-yard touchdown against the Rams on Monday. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The NFL will likely consider negating touchdowns for taunting penalties, the NFL's head of officiating Dean Blandino told the NFL Network.

Blandino said he's "sure" the league's competition committee will look at implementing the rule to mirror the same restriction on players in the NCAA; in college football, a player who receives a taunting penalty on a play involving a touchdown results in the negating of the TD and a 15-yard penalty from the location of where the taunting began.

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News that the league may discuss the rule change comes days after Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate scored a game-winning touchdown against the St. Louis Rams. On the play -- an 80 yard touchdown -- Tate waved to the Rams' secondary until he reached the end zone.

Afterward, Tate apologized for the taunting, saying it was "immature of me." Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said it's a shame he acted that way on the field because "it kind of washes away a fantastic football play."

Blandino commented on Tate's play afterward, adding his thoughts about what he expects the league to do in the offseason to discourage this type of behavior in the future:

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“A lot of people felt that the touchdown shouldn’t have counted [but] a taunting foul is always treated as a dead-ball foul, meaning whatever happened during the play counts, and the foul is enforced on the next play, which would be the kickoff. In college, this action would take back the touchdown. Tate started taunting at the 25-yard line. The college rule, that’s enforced at the spot of the foul, so they’d go from a touchdown to first-and-10 at the 40, which would be a gigantic penalty. The NFL rule, it’s a dead-ball foul, it’s enforced on the kickoff. But I’m sure that’s something that the Competition Committee will look at in the offseason.”

NBC Sports for the transcription