Big 12 players could be penalized for Horns Down gesture in specific situations
There is one issue unique to the Big 12 that conference officials have to deal with each year.
What to do about the Horns Down gesture that troubles Texas players and fans?
At Big 12 Media Days in Arlington, Texas, Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks was asked this week if an opposing football player would be penalized for flashing Horns Down.
Burks’ answer: Maybe.
“Let me put it this way,” Burks said. “If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that’s probably going to be a foul.
“Please all of you note, I said ‘probably.’ We have to consider intent and consider the situation. We’ll leave it to officials.”
The Big 12 wants to cut down on taunting, so it makes sense the Horns Down could be seen as insulting a Longhorns player.
If an opponent flashed an index finger and pinky pointed down in a Texas player’s face, that wouldn’t be unlike a Texas Tech player being shown Guns Down (or holstering the guns). That clearly would be taunting.
The Hook ‘Em Horns hand sign (or simply Horns Up), has been a Texas celebration since at least the 1950s.
Horns Down has been a lingering issue for the Big 12.
During a 2018 game in Austin, West Virginia’s David Sills V was penalized for taunting after showing a double Horns Down hand symbol to the crowd.
“I mean, we got some hand signs, too, that we could throw up,” Dana Holgorsen, the Mountaineers coach at the time, said, per ESPN. “Some of you in here know what I’m talking about. There’s a hand signal that looks like the state of West Virginia that we could be flashing left and right out there.”
Going back to 2012, then-Texas coach Mack Brown expressed his displeasure with the gesture.
“The Horns Down is disrespectful,” Brown said at the time. “We ought to talk about that as a league.”
The Big 12 has discussed it — and will continue to do it seems.
