NFL and Gang Signs

**Cidp24** · 07-17-08, 12:03 AM

NFL steps up monitoring of players for gang signs

NEW YORK (AP)—The NFL is stepping up its monitoring of on-field player activities to ensure that no one is flashing the hand signals of street gangs.
The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the league had hired experts to look at game tapes and identify players or team officials who might be using suspected gang signals. Violators would be warned and disciplined if the episodes recurred.
League officials said Tuesday that avoiding gang-related activities has long been stressed.
They said the scrutiny was intensified after the shooting death of Denver cornerback Darrent Williams in 2007 after Williams was involved in a dispute with known gang members. Anti-gang information is included in orientation literature and stressed in the annual mandatory league meeting for rookies.
The NFL took further notice after Paul Pierce of the NBA’s Boston Celtics was fined $25,000 in April for what the league said was a “menacing gesture” toward the Atlanta Hawks’ bench. “I 100 percent do not in any way promote gang violence or anything close to it.” Pierce said in a statement. “I am sorry if it was misinterpreted that way at Saturday’s game.”
The Times said that was the precipitating incident for the NFL.
“We were always suspicious that might be happening,” it quoted Mike Pereira, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, as saying of gang-related signals. “But the Paul Pierce thing is what brought it to light. When he was fined … that’s when we said we need to take a look at it and see if we need to be aware of it.”
Most senior NFL officials were at a league outing Tuesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

**Bob Loblaw** · 07-17-08, 03:46 AM

To completely state the obvious here, the gang life is pretty prevalent in NFL lockerrooms. In my old line of work, I was in and around players all the time and got to know some of them very, very well..I can say for absolute certainty that there are a lot more players that are still banging than you'd think. And many, many more who used to be and hang out with their old buddies in the off season, possibly even financially supporting gang activity (that last part is just a hunch on my end, but I'll bet a little digging could prove it to be true).

**Ducky** · 07-17-08, 03:54 AM

You can take the guys out of the ghetto, but getting the ghetto out of the guys? Just about impossible. I'd think that a lot of those guys are essentially just thugs with money and fame now. Proof that money really doesn't make the man.

**Xiphos** · 07-17-08, 10:06 AM

Just look at the Vick brothers involved in "thug life." One made it to the NFL for a while before being publicly exposed. The other couldn't make it through college. I don't think they are the exception "slipping through the cracks."

**lewisipso** · 07-18-08, 01:34 AM

Violators would be warned and disciplined if the episodes recurred.

That statement is a complete joke. Want to make sure it doesn't happen? If you are caught doing it you are fired never to return to professional sports again. Ever. Your entire last paycheck will be donated to charity. Have a blessed day.
That should do it.

**Bob Loblaw** · 07-18-08, 03:22 AM

the hard part of this is that some of the hand signals used by every NFL team and most higher level college teams (that would be all but the ones in the SEC

) are coincidentally also used by some street gangs. The best example I can think of is the typical hand sign for "OK" - think of thumb and first finger making a circle with the other 3 fingers pointing up..but the NFL version is with the thumb and first finger squashed down like an aligator snout I suppose....i know this definitely used to be a Dallas Cowboys sideline hand signal for a specific personnel grouping in 2001, and I know I've seen a lot of other pro teams use it, too. Well, I was also informed by a supervisor once that is also a gang sign when he saw some local douchebag using it. I've also seen the two hands clasped together at the thumb like bird wings, one hand over the mouth like a bandit mask with the other grabbing the throat like a choke and some other ones on NFL sidelines. I guess for the league to be serious about this, they cal really only be policing the on-field celebration hand gestures.

**Jks9199** · 07-18-08, 12:16 PM

If they use a good expert, and maybe do some follow up investigations, they'll be fine. Sure, some "gang signs" also have legit meanings ("Hook 'Em Horns" are the same as the MS handsign; GD uses a heart shape that VA tourism officials accepted in an ad campaign, and so on) but if you check the player's background, you should have a clue who's banging and who's throwing up their fraternity sign.