By JOHN E. HOOVER Sports Columnist on Nov 5, 2012, at 9:02 PM Updated on 11/05 at 9:02 PM
When I first read it, I thought Mack Brown had finally and completely lost his mind.
He wants to ask the Big 12 Conference to penalize rival hand gestures?
But then I read the whole question, and Mack’s whole answer, and I came to a different — and probably wholly unpopular — conclusion.
Mack Brown is right. Or, he will be.
Mack isn’t complaining. He’s not whining. He was responding to a question about receiver Mike Davis’ “holstering the guns” gestures after scoring a touchdown last week in Lubbock.
Davis was basically telling Tech supporters — who stick their thumbs and fingers in the air like little pretend cowboy pistols — to pipe down.
Davis apparently got a warning, then got a 15-yard penalty.
Brown said other teams don’t get penalized when they throw the ever-popular Horns Down hand sign. Davis said he thought about all the Horns Down signs he’d seen before he decided to holster Tech's guns.
(Sooner fans, you can skip to the next paragraph if you want. Anyone else who doesn’t know, Horns fans put up their index and pinky fingers as a symbol of their ubiquitous longhorn steer. It’s believed that OU fans invented, out of pure hate, the downward horns, where you basically bend your wrist forward until the index and pinky are facing down. You know, “I hate Texas,” or “Texas stinks,” or some derivative sentiment. Maybe OU fans ripped it off from Yale. Or maybe A&M fans came up with it a hundred years ago. I really don’t know.)
Thing is, Brown's right.
At no time was Jermaine Gresham or Kejuan Jones or any other couple hundred Sooners who threw the Horns Down during the OU-Texas game over the past 3-4 decades assessed a 15-yard penalty. Or anyone else.
But if Kenny Stills scores a touchdown next year in the Cotton Bowl, for instance, and then shows the Horns Down, he will be flagged.
That is, if Big 12 honchos decide that it is indeed a sign of unsportsmanlike conduct, and if Big 12 game officials decide to enforce it, and if they enforce it equally for every player on every team after every touchdown. (Good luck with that.)
Personally, I think it’s all a bit silly.
Players play this game with emotion. In rival games, that emotion becomes unbridled passion. Oklahoma football players really, really hate Texas. Ask Brian Bosworth or Steve Owens or Billy Sims or just about any player whose speech is no longer controlled by the university. The current players hate Texas, too. They just say it during the game. When they score against the Longhorns, I think it’s pretty cool that they can express that emotion.
Likewise, if players want to put Tech’s pistols in their holster or pick their nose with TCU’s little imaginary frog sign, let them.
Sorry, PC Police, but it’s part of what makes college football awesome.
“The horns down is disrespectful,” Brown said. “We ought to talk about that as a league.”
Yes, Mack, it is disrespectful. Get over it. And get over yourself. It’s college football. I guarantee Mack threw the Horns Down when he was an OU assistant under Barry Switzer in 1984. If he didn’t, then maybe that’s the real reason Switzer kept him for just one year.
OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops told reporters Monday night that if someone flashes the Horns Down next year, “I’m not going to hold it against my players. If I did it, it would be a little immature and foolish.
“They’re just having fun. They’re not trying to disrespect anybody. Certainly, he (Brown) is entitled to his opinion. I don’t think it’s personal. But obviously maybe they’re taking it that way. I don’t think it’s a big deal.
“I’m not gonna walk around and do it, but I’m not gonna stop my players.”
Alas, Brown probably will bring it up at the spring coaches meetings. No one will like it, but no one will disagree. And DeLoss Dodds will get the rule put in writing next year, almost guaranteed. That’s what the PC Police do, they make everyone else behave one way, their way, and if it benefits them, well then, that’s fine, too.
The rule will be stupid, but at least it will fairly penalize ALL hand signs, starting with those that disrespect the poor Texas Longhorns.
And then, when it’s a 15-yard penalty for everyone, Stoops and the Sooners will think it’s a big deal, and it’ll have to stop. Mack Brown isn’t crazy, but he’ll be right.
And the uniqueness of college football will die just a little bit more.
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