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Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff Writer
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Two days after Drake London scored the go-ahead touchdown on “Monday Night Football” and celebrated by pantomiming shooting a gun into the air, the Atlanta Falcons wide receiver said he wasn’t pleased with how it all went down.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to London with 34 seconds left Monday against the Philadelphia Eagles. The score put the Falcons even, 21-21, on the road in Philadelphia.
London, after his first MNF touchdown, said he got a little carried away in the moment. The Falcons were flagged for a 15-yard penalty, and kicker Younghoe Koo had to kick a 48-yard extra point to give the team the lead, which they held on to for a major, 22-21 early-season victory.
“It’s a trend around football right now to do that type of celebration,” London told ESPN. “It was my first ‘Monday Night Football’ game. I kind of lost myself in there. I wasn’t happy with the position I put my team in.”
On top of that, London said he regretted the celebration because of the gun reference. The Falcons hosted the Apalachee (Georgia) High School football team at their practice facility last week, just days after the fatal shooting there. The school is about 25 miles from Falcons headquarters.
“There’s a lot of stuff going around in the world with gun violence that I don’t think I should have displayed there,” London said. “So, I’m not too happy with it, and [you] probably won’t see that again from me.”
Falcons coach Raheem Morris said London apologized for the situation after the game. He said the team is “sensitive,” given the climate in the country, especially near home.
The Drake move “was a celebration that you don’t want to have happen because of the violence that goes on in our country that we’re very sensitive of,” Morris said. “But he had no ill will and no intent. And that’s a mistake by all of us, on all of our parts, to have those things come out in light of what’s going on in our country, and not being sensitive to those situations that we definitely are. We hosted the school that had the violence here, and we’re really sensitive about all of those things and how those things happen for us. And we do care.
“And that was just Drake having fun with his fan base and his people up in the stands, and you don’t really think about those things at the moment.”
The Falcons wore Apalachee High School T-shirts during warmups before their Week 1 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Some players were still wearing them Wednesday in the locker room.
“Our game is a thing that helps bring these things back and make things better,” Morris said. “So, you certainly don’t want to shine the light or anything that’s going [on] like that, even though you didn’t have the intent. And I know that none of us had the intent. I know for sure Drake did not.”