Panthers’ Rico Dowdle turns attention on ‘2 pumps’ fine into opportunity to raise funds for charity

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rico Dowdle is turning a fine from the NFL for his “two pumps” touchdown celebration last Sunday into an opportunity to raise funds for children in need of adoption.

After being fined $14,491 by the league, Dowdle started a GoFundMe in which all proceeds will go toward the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina.

He has already raised more than $20,000.

“It’s a charity for kids and foster kids in homes that are in need of a family and it just so happened to be national adoption month,” Dowdle said Thursday at his locker after practice.

Dowdle said his first tweet about doing a GoFundMe was meant to be a joke about raising money to cover his fine, but “it turned into something much bigger and for a greater cause” after GoFundMe representatives contacted his agency about raising money for children in North Carolina.

Dowdle, who played high school football in Asheville, North Carolina, and college ball at South Carolina, was all in.

“I’m kind of surprised (by the money that has been raised), but not really, because there are a lot of people in the world that have good hearts,” Dowdle said.

Dowdle was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct Sunday and later fined by the league after he celebrated a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers with two pelvic thrusts, a takeoff on a popular 2013 Comedy Central sketch from “Key & Peele.”

In the sketch mocking excessive celebration penalties, fictional football player Hingle McCringleberry isn’t penalized until he thrusts his hips three times.

Dowdle was fined after making two thrusts, which led to plenty of jokes.

Actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key, who wrote the sketch for Comedy Central, weighed in after the game on Sunday on Instagram.

“Rico. Man, you got robbed. You only did two pumps,″ Key said. “I’m sorry, man. Now I’m going to have to write a new sketch.”

“Key said I got three pumps but I guess the NFL disagrees,” Dowdle wrote on X.

The NFL announced earlier this year that it would be emphasizing sportsmanship and cracking down on violent and sexually suggestive gestures this season.

“Unsportsmanlike gestures like simulating or either shooting a gun or brandishing a gun, or inappropriate gestures like a throat slash, or unfortunate sexual gestures, those were up 133% so that is a point of emphasis,” NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson said in August.

While the Panthers can laugh about the penalty now, it nearly cost the team in a big way.

After Dowdle was flagged for the celebration, the Panthers were moved back 15 yards on the ensuing extra point and rookie Ryan Fitzgerald missed the kick, leaving Carolina up by seven points instead of eight.

The Packers would later tie the game at 13 before the Panthers won on a walk-off field goal by Fitzgerald.

Dowdle said coach Dave Canales didn’t talk to him about the penalty.

“I’m happy we were able to get the win and it didn’t come back to bite us,” Dowdle said.

When asked if he might try celebrating a touchdown on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints with one pump instead of two, Dowdle laughed and said, “no pumps, no pumps!”

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