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Report: NFL has no immediate plans to change taunting rule enforcement

Patrick Smith / Getty Images Sport / Getty

The NFL has no immediate plans to instruct its competition committee to modify the enforcement of the taunting rule, sources told Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

The league informed teams over the offseason it would start to crack down on post-play demonstrations, and the NFL believes rule enforcement has gone as expected over the first two weeks despite the criticism. It also thinks players will eventually adjust.

NFL officials called eight unsportsmanlike penalties in Week 2, tying the highest single-week total since 2000. As a result, fans and the NFL Players Association heavily criticized the league.

"For those who aren't a fan of the new taunting rule, we aren't either," the NFLPA tweeted Monday. "Rules like this are adopted through the competition committee, which includes 11 members: 10 selected by the commissioner and one NFLPA rep."

However, multiple head coaches and team officials are in favor of the crackdown.

"The idea behind the taunting rule is to prevent the bigger things, OK?" Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera, a member of the competition committee, recently said.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll respects the NFL's intention behind the taunting rule, but he said it's hard to manage.

"I think we've opened up a bit of a can of worms. And so we're going to have to find our way through it here as we go," Carroll recently said.

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