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NFL Bans the Captain Morgan Pose

By Kamika Dunlap | Last updated on

Strike a pose.

OK, maybe not if you're NFL tight end Brent Celek, or any other football player on the field marketing or promoting a product during a live game.

Celek, posed in front of television cameras, mimicking the Captain Morgan pose from the famous rum's label and televison ad campaign.

It cost his Philadelphia Eagles team a 15-yard penalty for demonstration, which was incurred when Celek's teammate tried to help him achieve the perfect Captain Morgan pose.

"A company can't pay a player to somehow promote it's product on the field," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Yahoo! Sports.

The Captain Morgan pose was banned last week after the NFL learned of Captain Morgan's wider campaign aimed to get players to repeatedly strike the pose during NFL games.

The NFL takes a strong stance against companies using players for their ambush marketing purposes and guerilla tactics.

According to Captain Morgan's promotion company, their new campaign was set to launch next week.

For every time a player posed on camera striking the Captain Morgan during a regular season game, $10,000 would be donated to Gridiron Greats - a non-profit which helps retired NFL players.

If players posed during the playoffs or in the Super Bowl, the alcohol company planned to increase its charity contribution to the Gridiron Greats fund.

Currently, NFL policies prohibit wearing, displaying, promoting or otherwise conveying players' support of a commercially identified product during a game while they're on the field.

For now, Celek's still got a little bit of the Captain in him and he won't be fined.

But NFL officials say that striking the pose in future games will result in a "significant" penalty.

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