PALM DESERT, Calif. – Well, the No Fun League is at it again. No bandanas. No headbands. No personality.

The NFL continues to crack down on the individuality of players in the name of professionalism. The competition committee, supported by the NFL Players Association, came together recently on plans to improve sportsmanship in the NFL. A stronger system of fines has been discussed. Next season, officials will be instructed to throw quick flags for taunting or unsportsmanlike displays.

	Co-competition committee chairman Dennis Green has a no-bandana rule for the Vikings.

While they don't add to or subtract from the game, bandanas and headbands also are unwanted by the league. At the owners meeting, you almost feel out of place trumpeting the cause of player individuality. Heck, this resort is so plush that you feel uncomfortable going to the swimming pool without a tuxedo.

Maybe it's the individualist in me that makes me unnerved by complete uniformity. Maybe it's the fact I grew up going through the public school systems instead of private schools. In a sport that asks its players to sacrifice their bodies for the good of their team, I don't feel that it's wrong for a player to wear something under his helmet that motivates him to do his best on any given Sunday.

Out of fairness, here is the league's side: A survey was conducted at the end of the season to coaches and front office executives around the league. The conclusion? Sportsmanship was on the decline.

Coaches cut up plays that looked embarrassing to the league. There was concern that there was too much taunting, and some thought players looked like criminals with some of the stuff they wore under their helmets. Buccaneers general manager Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee, said that colleges cleaned up a lot of that stuff five years ago. High school coaches have been urging the NFL to do this for years.

Well-respected Vikings coach Dennis Green, the other co-chairman of the committee, has a no-bandana rule.

"Anybody that makes a big deal about it, I don't get it," Green said. "You don't see baseball players run up and hit each other. When they take their helmets off, they look like everybody else."

Of course, I'm not sure that baseball is the model of uniform discipline. Coaches are allowed to have minute-long temper tantrums; managers kick up dirt on umpires. Players wear socks up, socks down. Hit a batter and the game is delayed 10 minutes because players in the bullpen rush to the field to fight.

All of that is nonsense.

But baseball players have their individuality. There used to be a time when teams would forbid players from growing facial hair, too. The difference in the NFL is that you don't get to see a player's face all that often. It's forbidden for a player to take his helmet off on the field because he's subject to a penalty for removing his helmet unless he's on the sideline.

This isn't like a freedom of speech issue, but the NFL player is visible to fans only three hours every Sunday. He's judged by how he performs – not how he looks. And face it, not every coach is as good as Dennis Green at gaining the respect of his players by putting in strict rules.

	There will always be good guys and bad guys in the NFL. Each team can't be cut out of the same mold. You can't have 32 Dudley Do-Rights.

For Green to outlaw bandanas on his team is OK. As a coach, he's a teacher. He has that rare knack of all the great teachers of using discipline as a tool for educating players. He commands respect. Players fear disappointing him. He's fair. His word is consistent. Those who break his rules know they are out.

Green wins because he's great with veteran players who have been through some of those nonsense years in their early twenties. They respect him because his track record is that his system puts the player in position to be a winner and a possible champion.

Coaches on other teams cannot necessarily lead as forcefully and successfully as Green. That puts the player in position to fill in some of the voids. That's where individuality comes out.

Through the years, the NFL and sports in general have profited by the ideas of heroes and villains. For years, the Raiders loved the idea of being mavericks who go against the grain. They were the bad guys who played good football. Was there anything wrong with that model?

Pro football is entertainment; tasteful displays of emotion and individualism shouldn't be outlawed. The Rams' Bob & Weave end zone celebration was tasteful and didn't distract from the game. It shouldn't have been punished with stiff fines. Any celebration in which teammates face teammates to celebrate a touchdown or big play shouldn't be prohibited as long as it doesn't taunt or easily incite a fight from players from other teams.

There will always be good guys and bad guys in the NFL. Each team can't be cut out of the same mold. You can't have 32 Dudley Do-Rights.

Lighten up, NFL. Outlawing bandanas and headbands isn't going to stop the two dozen incidents that will embarrass the NFL this offseason. There is a real world, and individuals screw up.

The NFL never will sink to the low levels reached by the XFL, which turned off viewers by making taunting and name-calling part of its game. There always has been a strong fiber of professionalism in the NFL. Players' weeks are so regimented by prompt meeting schedules and attention to detail that the knucklehead factor is minor overall.

Sometimes, there can be too much legislation.

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.