Ja'Marr Chase spoke to the media for the first time in a few weeks on Thursday. The superstar receiver has a massive game on deck this weekend against Baltimore, and even though he won his celebration fine appeal against the NFL, don't expect the "people's elbow" to make a return near the Chesapeake Bay.
Chase is letting a sleeping dog rest and not touching those celebration moves anymore despite the league siding with his reasoning for bringing it out in the first place.
"If we could do the celly, we would bring it back, but I don't think they're gonna let us," Chase said. "You know what I'm saying? So it's too many opinions on the celebration, so they're probably just gonna dead it. But I'm just happy that I got a chance to get the opportunity to win my money back."
So Long, Celly
The NFL fined Tee Higgins four times and Chase twice from doing the celebration in September's game against Houston. The two players were fined $89,556 total for the arm signage.
That's behind Chase; now he's focused on igniting what's been a pretty light season in terms of receiving yards so far (289 yards through five games).
"Started off pretty slow, first game. Haven't had a 100-yard game yet. I think that's a really big key on why I'm so low," Chase noted. "But I'm getting good opportunities. Defense is changing looks, and there hasn't been too many downfield passes for me to make the 100 yards, but they're still using me a good way."
Chase hasn't played under the Baltimore sun since 2021, when he was late for a team activity that week, but still balled out with eight catches for 201 yards and a touchdown.
"I got fined for damn near missing a whole meeting that week that year," Chase said. "So I actually had to play good. I came late to a morning practice, and yeah, I think it was a Friday or Saturday I came late and then after the game, after we won, they (the coaches) was like, 'If you doing stuff like that, you come late every time.' So that's a good little part."
Chase has tightened up the time allocation much better in the ensuing half decade. He takes on the Baltimore secondary Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
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