ESPN Announcers Didn’t Hide Their Disgust Over Texas Football Player’s On-Field Bathroom Celebration

You think you’ve seen everything in college football. And then a zany social media clip hits you out of nowhere and makes you question your relationship to the sport.

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During Saturday’s marquee SEC matchup between No. 1 Texas and No. 14 Tennessee, Longhorns edge Colin Simmons slammed Vols quarterback Faizon Brandon to the ground in the second quarter for a huge loss of yards on third down. It was a big-time defensive play from Simmons, with Texas leading 10–3 with roughly five minutes remaining in the first half, but it was what Simmons did afterward that drew the tut-tutting scrutiny of ESPN announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler.

Following the sack, Simmons got up and pretended to go to the bathroom as part of his celebration. That pretty quickly elicited a flag, as the game’s officials handed Simmons an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for “simulating using the restroom.”

“There it is, just an inside move, splits the double team. … Watch the reaction by Simmons after the play,” Herbstreit said. “Just an absolute idiotic move by Colin Simmons doing that. [He] is supposed to one of the leaders of this defense.”

“Yeah, it’s idiotic, and it doesn’t get much more vulgar, either,” Fowler echoed.

Colin Simmons was called for an unsportsmanslike conduct penalty after a sack on 3rd down. pic.twitter.com/JO0CH6aeOf

– ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 26, 2026

Simmons’s inappropriate celebration bailed out the Volunteers from having to punt deep in their own territory, gifting Tennessee’s offense a free first down instead.

Simmons, who is currently in his third season at Texas, later logged another sack in the third quarter, and he kept things PG this time around:

Colin Simmons with BACK TO BACK sacks for Texas

Did NOT “simulate going to the restroom” on these sacks this time aroundpic.twitter.com/6uyaZIMchm

– Underdog CFB (@UnderdogCFB) September 26, 2026

Had Simmons pulled that stunt in the NFL, he would have automatically been slapped with a fine. The NFL recently punished a handful of players for what the league deemed were “offensive” on-field celebrations, which included 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk imitating chugging a beer and Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase performing a gesture “that can be interpreted as resembling a phallus,” according to The Athletic.

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Herbstreit and Fowler likely spoke for the majority of fans watching at home when they described Simmons’s unsportsmanlike move as an inherently dumb one that was always going to get flagged.

Simmons is far from the only one to try a restroom-related celebration with the most famous college football example coming in the 2019 Egg Bowl. Mississippi wide receiver Elijah Moore pretended to be a dog urinating in the end zone after scoring a touchdown with seconds remaining in the game. Moore received a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct which forced the extra point try to come from 35 yards out. The kick was wide right and Ole Miss lost, 21–20, to rival Mississippi State.

In the NFL, former Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin was fined $11,025 for his infamous “poopdown” celly in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015. NBC notably declined to air the entire celebration, which Baldwin performed after catching a three-yard touchdown pass from Russell Wilson. Baldwin later admitted the move was directed at Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis, though it was the latter who got the last laugh as New England flushed its foes down the toilet in the 28–24 comeback win.

Back in 2010, Iceland’s men’s soccer team FC Stjarnan also got in on the potty humor with a pre-planned human toilet celebration involving as many as four players (the guy who pretended to be the toilet lid did a fabulous job).

Ultimately, Simmons will probably look back on his ill-advised penalty with a helping of regret, given that it erased a key defensive play for Texas, and may even get a stern talking-to from his coaches warning him not to pull that one out again. Texas held on to beat Tennessee, 20–17.

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This story was originally published September 26, 2026 at 1:41 PM.