Christian Kirk had a low-key great celebration, and TNF cameras cut away

On the whole, Thursday Night Football games have something of a bad rap. While it’s not always totally accurate, there’s a perception that the contests are generally bad, with a combination of a short week and mediocre matchups tanking the viewer experience.

The October 19 game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New Orleans Saints, however, did produce some notable highlights en route to a dramatic conclusion. Chief among them was Christian Kirk’s 44-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, which clinched a “W” for the visitors.

And while there was some confusion at the time—Al Michaels initially thought that Kirk stepped out at the one-yard line—the receiver did break out a quality touchdown celebration. The broadcast, however, cut away before he really got down to business.

Thankfully for fun-loving football fans, there’s an alternate angle out there showing his work.

Let’s roll that tape.

Kirk Delivered an Amazon Package in the End Zone

Over the years, NFL fans have seen wide receivers produce some all-time celebrations. And while Kirk didn’t reach Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson/Ochocinco levels of performance, the Jaguar did still come up with a cool idea.

As mentioned above, the scoring play itself was also worth acknowledging. With the game knotted at 24 in the fourth quarter, Kirk caught a short pass a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage. At that point, he turned on the afterburners and simply outran everyone to the end zone.

There, from a broadcasting perspective, is where things went a bit off the rails. Michaels wasn’t sure if the wideout broke the plane; as he sorted things out, the camera cut to a celebrating Trevor Lawrence.

Meanwhile, though, the receiver was celebrating in the end zone.

And, thanks to another feed, we saw what happened.

As seen on both Reddit and Twitter, Kirk carefully placed the ball at the back of the end zone. He mimed taking a photo of the ball, then knocked on the goalpost’s protective padding before backing away.

The process, if you’re struggling to put the charades together, was meant to mimic the delivery of an Amazon package.

And was Kirk’s celebration the flashiest around? Of course not, but that’s not the only factor at play. The creativity, combined with the wink-wink nudge-nudge nature of doing it during a game airing on Amazon, deserves some props.

This Celebration Did Reach Official Channels

And while the broadcast cut away from Kirk’s perfect Amazon plug, the brands eventually started to catch on.

As seen above, NFL on Prime Video X (formerly Twitter) account shared a clip of the celebration with a caption about Kirk and Amazon both delivering.

That social media activity, however, stands in contrast to what happened during Week 6, when Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill celebrated a touchdown by borrowing a cell phone and (attempting) to film himself doing a backflip. That video was shared by the NFL’s U.K. X account, but it was later deleted. Some speculated that the league didn’t want to promote the celebration before fining the wideout for his behavior.

And while there is a key difference between the two—the NFL probably feels that Hill used a prop while Kirk did not—it’s hard to look at the outcomes and not feel a bit cynical. An innocent backflip was pulled from an official account, while a celebration that’s tied to one of the league’s major business partners is live online (and has nearly 10,000 views as of early Friday morning).

But, with that being said, the NFL can’t fully control what we see and don’t see. And, to that end, it’s still a net positive that Kirk’s celebration is making its way around the internet after the broadcast cut away.

Football is supposed to be fun, after all. End zone celebrations are a part of that.