NFL: Throw passes, not gang signs

The NFL has hired a handful of experts to review video of its games to see if any players are throwing gang signs for the cameras. The league says it takes a no-nonsense approach to any gang-related activity and will order any players doing this to knock it off.

At least one player, though, thinks it's a bad idea. Snip from the Los Angeles Times:

"Guys come from all over the country, and who knows what they're really doing?" said Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Dennis Northcutt, adding he cannot remember seeing a gang gesture in his nine NFL seasons. "People have got signs for their kids, signs for their fraternities. How do you differentiate who's really throwing up gang signs?"

Comments

[PM]

That's black culture now a days, they think it's so cool, but really it's so getto, Whites that like it too, their getto also

[JUNGLE JIM]

I always wondered what those weird gestures were when a referee calls a penalty. Thanks for clearing that up!

[Tim]

people all over the US are starving and they're doing what?

All this is doing is making an issue out of a non-issue

[Ni]

PM you're an idiot!!! Fraternities & Sororities have used hand signs as a way to identify each other long before gangs were even thought about. If you actually graduated school and went to college you would know that.

Back to the topic this is a wasted study. What they should focus on is why the Chiefs suck so badly but continue to raise their prices. Now that’s a crime!

[Tim]

that's eazy Ni... King Karl Peterson

[D-man]

Do people still use gang signs?

[Marvin]

The league needs to focus on punishing the REAL cheaters; the Patriots. They just gave them a slap on the wrist after even more evidence of their cheating was uncovered. I'm a Steelers fan and we were screwed out of 2 trips to the Super Bowl by their antics. What's worse is players could tell at the time they were cheating since the Patsies knew all their signals.

were they tipped off that someone was throwing up a gang sign, or is this racial profiling or as i like to call it ignorant profiling at it's best

[Greg]

"That's black culture now a days, they think it's so cool, but really it's so getto, Whites that like it too, their getto also"

Calling an act ghetto and misspelling "ghetto" is just hilarious.

If you want to state which race has places the largest stamp involving gangs, it would be Hispanics. Gang members that are Black are minimal compared to entire race. Same with hispanics. So, don't jump and say gangs are a Black thing. Every gangs or hate group has signs to let others know their identity or for intimidation. Think nazi's for example.

....and Paul Pierce knows damn well he through up a "B", Swan style. He is from Inglewood and Inglewood is for the most part Blood territory. I knew exactly what he did as soon as it happend. There is no way it meant anything else, being that he is from a gang infested part of LA. He would no better than to make any gester with his hands.

[ptt]

Here's a novel concept....Lets create a group of professional athletes, pay them obscene amounts of money, allow them to make our children emulate their every action and then wonder why our kids are so misguided. Any wonder why a disproportionate number of NFL players in the news for detrimental behavior are black? NFL=NEGRO FOOTBALL LEAGUE...simple!

Now, just if the NBA would do something similar.....

ptt are you jealous because the league has more black athletes than whites? i'm just saying, not trying to make this a black v. white thing, but there's still white men in the nfl. it's just that the ones you here about the most are black. so hold all you ignorant comments to yourself. or better yet, walk up to the first black person you see and express yourself appropriately. i'm sick of ya'll saying all this ignorant crap. if you can't say it to a black person's face, the don't say it all. don't worry about responded back, because i don't like hiding behind the internet and my computer.

oh and news flash there's a black people, in the MLB, the NHL, Ulitmate fighting, Boxing, LPGA, PGA, WNBA, NBA, the National Karate Association, equestrianism, gymnastics, the westminster dog show, horse racing, dog racing, chicken fighting, dog fighting, cat fighting, and my list goes on and on.

[lol]

ya ll seem mad about it. i would guess cause they young and black and getting paid to play a game and ya ll have to work for crumbs. they aint nothing to you and you aint nothing to them you dont like it dont watch. and raise ya own kids you go play ball wit em how a man they dont even know supposed to be their role model.

Greg is right. The hispanic culture is where you find gangs, don't believe it, then look up MS13, just pray that more of them don't migrate to Kansas City.

Blacks don't actually join gangs. But excuse the sentence here, but when white people or those people who are not black, see a group of black men together, then those black people are considered a gang. And that's not actually true. They have "clicks" of friends or groups of friends. But they're not gangs. Paul Pierce put up that BK sign, but so what. That doesn't mean that all black men in professional sports represent gang culture.

[indeed]

lol your being a little harsh. They don't want to here that someone doesn't care about them. One of might go to work this morning and shoot up the place. Be your on kids role model. Play ball with them. And don't let them watch the Negro Football League on tv or the Negro basketball league, or the Negro Hockey Legue on tv. Let them grow up, not experience what it looks like to be an athlete. Let them feel that culture shock when they turn about 12, and they go down to play basketball at the YMCA and they're extremely sorry and unathletic because they've been watching their fat, unathletic daddys, play basketball. And because instead of learning through experience, their fat & unathletic daddy expects the KU, K-State, and MU sports camps to teach them how to play sports. But they won't learn anything because they're freakin' embarrassed because they've realised that daddy really didn't know what he was talkin about.

[me]

I hate gangs! They are the best of evil!

[vgeezy]

When I first moved her I read the posts in the KC Star and I thought damn I have moved to a town of racists....But after about a year and meeting lots of people I have come to realize it's only a tiny segment of the population. Centered mainly around Independence. It's called the "Trash Mentality"

"Blacks don't actually join gangs."

What country are you living in??? All races have gang affiliations in this country. Have you been in a secondary school lately?? Or, better yet, check out your local prison. NO GANGS?? Yeah, right!

[Gang sign to Pres. Bush and his administration]

*holding up middle finger*

[Greg]

Kind of hard to explain, but I know what he means when he says that Black's don't join gangs. Many of the black gangs, in Kansas City for example are not as organized and less hardcore, overall.

You can grown up in certain area and just identify with that neighborhood because you know everyone around there. My grandparents neighborhood is were most of my childhood friends come from. Many of the same families have lived on those blocks for generations. They become like extended family. Now many of my childhood friends have taken different paths in life, some choose to consider themselves gang members. When it come to a gathering, holidays, or any event going on in the neighborhood, you will find a mix of people there, some gang', some not. I don't feel threatened of scared to mix with them because I grew up with them, no matter how 'hard' they are now.

So, if I wanted to be a hardcore gangmember, I don't have to join nothing. I am already associated. There are no rituals. The only rite of passage is growing up in the area. It is all about what kind of person you decide to be.

[please sign your comments]

Greg,

Ok, I do get your point. But are you saying that the Crips, Bloods, and the like are just groups of guys from the same neighborhood? Hmmmmm...thinking not. Isnt that the same for Hispanic gangs? A gang by any other name......

[Greg]

No, I am not saying that they are 'just' a group of guys, but that is the basis of the group. The activities that they involve themselves make them gangmembers. In KC, Bloods and Crips are basically a group of guys from the same neighborhood. They just don't do lawful things that a 'normal' group of friends do. The common denominator. The guys that label the neighborhood by the street # and declare wearing blue, red, or no color are the gangmembers.

Gang obviously do get more complex than that. KC gangs may be affiliated with gangs in other citys and correctional institutions, but no on that level of complexity.