Did Xavier Worthy get penalized for Christmas-themed celebration?

Kansas City Chiefs rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy certainly looked like the Grinch who stole Christmas at Acrisure Stadium early on. After the Chiefs defense forced the Pittsburgh Steelers off the field quickly on their first drive, Patrick Mahomes and Co. had great field position and took advantage of it.

Once in the red zone, Worthy lined up in the backfield and then ran out to the flat on the left side. The speedster was wide-open, hauled in a quick throw from Mahomes, and then was able to quickly turn on the jets and get into the end zone to take a quick lead. The celebration with fellow receiver Hollywood Brown, however, drew some ire from the officials.

It appeared that Worthy and Brown were doing an actual Grinch impression as the former threw presents into a mimed bag that Brown was holding before both ran off. And somehow in that, the refs saw a penalty, throwing a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, backing Harrison Butker back for a 48-yard extra-point try.

Butker missed the PAT try after being pushed back, but we're still wondering why Worthy was flagged at all?

Xavier Worthy's Grinch celebration flagged for questionable reasons

Why is a Christmas-themed celebration getting flagged? Well, it appears that Worthy was flagged for what happened after he and Brown stole all of the presents from under the Steelers' tree.

The explanation given on the Netflix broadcast was that, as Worthy and Brown walked away, the Chiefs rookie appeared to pull up his jersey or, at minimum, reach at his hip as if mimicking that he was brandishing a weapon or a gun. You can sort of see what the refs saw on the video, to be sure, but it was anything but an egregious move.

Having said that, the NFL has instituted a true no-wiggle room policy when it comes to celebrations involving guns, weapons or violence, so if they even thought there was any indication of that, then Worthy was always going to get flagged. At least it wasn't for being the Grinch? The No Fun League isn't stretching that far, at least not yet.

Worthy has to be smarter than that, though. While the rookie has stepped into a much bigger role this season than he was supposed to due to the injury to Brown that kept the veteran newcomer sidelines for the much of the season, he cost the Chiefs an early point in what's supposed to be a tight, hard-fought game. Even if it wasn't his intention (which we certainly can't confirm) to mime having a weapon, anything that can be interpreted as that has to be taken out of the body language vocabulary if you're a player.