San Diego, CA -- For years, football teams have been celebrating victories by pouring the sideline cooler of Gatorade over their coaches' heads.

It's all done in fun, but a licensed acupuncturist in San Diego is warning that it's a potentially deadly ritual.

Eugene Iwasa says the danger lies in the cold liquid making contact with two acupuncture points on the neck and back which are particularly vulnerable to what Iwasa calls "pathogenic factors of cold and wind."

He says an icy Gatorade bath inhibits the flow of blood and "chi," or energy, to these areas, leading to possible headaches, neck pain, back pain or colds.

Even worse, a coach could get pneumonia and die -- which is what happened to former Washington Redskins coach George Allen after players doused him with Gatorade in 1990.

Iwasa says it's time the tradition came to an end, and jokes players should dunk their coaches in soothing warm tea instead.

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