NFL Suspects Gang Sign-Starts with Paul Pierce

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.

I suppose this is the "gang symbol" Pierce threw up, but that's just plain ridiculous. Bet Stern will start investigating this in the NBA soon and try to make it look like they're cleaning up their image especially after the whole Donaghy scandal.

Misinterpreted my ass. He clearly threw up "blood."

Well, Pierce got stabbed like 20 times yesterday. That doesn't exactly work in his favor in this situation.

Really stupid though.

al horford started shit talk when pierce was down on floor and the sign looked more like a retaliation saying "asshole" or "bitch" kind of thing. al shouldn't have trash talked in first place with emotions heating high to 10 years vet. he deserved the fucking sign. i'm sure it wasn't a sign to call bloods to kill horford.

It does seem like a heat of the moment thing with Paul Pierce seeing as though he was reacting to Horford. Still, I can't blame the NBA or NFL for wanting to crack down on it and discourage players from doing it but having said that, while players should be held responsible they certainly shouldn't be demonised for letting their emotions get the better of them in an isolated incident.

These guys get paid MILLIONS of dollars for playing basketball.

The least they could do is act professionally.

I wouldn't mind it if Stern threw out every player who claims gang affiliation or demonstrates such in public. There are a lot of decent young guys out there who'd kill to play in the NBA. Fuck this gangsta culture and fuck the NBA players who promote it. Keepin' the black man down.

if a white man threw up that sign, it would have been interpreted as a b for boston.... a black man throws it up, its blood.... whats keepin black man down isn't all due to their lack of professionalism, its also a lack of understanding from other people...

I agree with Andrew on the fact that it was sort of a "heat of the moment" sort of thing.
In a way, the misinterpretation seems somewhat believable. If they said the "B" meant Boston, they'd clearly be lying.

I saw another video, and it wasn't a gang sign, it's something they do in Boston, like throwing up the "W" for West Side or West Coast, they "throw their threes up" for Boston.

I easily jumped to the conclusion of it being a gang sign for "blood", since Paul Pierce is from Inglewood, and there are blood gangs there.

if a white man threw up that sign, it would have been interpreted as a b for boston.... a black man throws it up, its blood.... whats keepin black man down isn't all due to their lack of professionalism, its also a lack of understanding from other people...

Wait... are you saying that the NBA is racist?

I personally think that what Paul Pierce did in the Atlanta game was not at all gang-related. It was more of Pierce was emotional and intense and it just came out. I just think it would be stereotypical to just dismiss it as a "gang sign" or anything like that.

if a white man threw up that sign, it would have been interpreted as a b for boston.... a black man throws it up, its blood.... whats keepin black man down isn't all due to their lack of professionalism, its also a lack of understanding from other people...

this is the dumbest fucking post i have ever seen in my life

I easily jumped to the conclusion of it being a gang sign for "blood", since Paul Pierce is from Inglewood, and there are blood gangs there.

word.

i did CalTrans community service the other day with some bangers in LA. they were from Rosecrans & Crenshaw and that whole area. it was strange.

Looks more like a B. And Horford should have gotten a T on that.

yeah "B" for "Bloods".

Click.

"It's something Pierce does before every game, what it stands for is "Blood, Sweat & Tears."

So the "b" does stand for "Blood"...

One question, what the fuck does "blood, sweat and tears" have to do with anything remotely related to what was happening during the moment he threw it up? You get trash talked to by someone and say "blood, sweat and tears"? Something you do as a pre-game ritual? Really? I thought you'd get agitated and threaten to kick someones ass. Or throw up a gang sign.

al horford started shit talk when pierce was down on floor and the sign looked more like a retaliation saying "asshole" or "bitch" kind of thing.

that's something 7 year old kids would do to insult each other because they actually got offended by it. "ooooo.... you said a bad word..."

but adults on the other hand handle things a little differently.



and Jackal that clip is what you call "damage control"

Yeah, it's off a Boston television channel, but regardless of the biasedness...

You see that in trying to make Pierce seem like the good guy (didn't throw up a gang sign), they end up making him look even more guilty by admitting what it stands for.

"If a black man was that reporter, they'd say Pierce was throwing up a B for Boomshackalackalackaboomboom as in punani time. A white man says it and he's saying it for "Blood, sweat and tears."

if a white man threw up that sign, it would have been interpreted as a b for boston.... a black man throws it up, its blood.... whats keepin black man down isn't all due to their lack of professionalism, its also a lack of understanding from other people...

Given the context, they'd probably interpret it as a "menacing gesture" no matter who made it.

Well, Pierce got stabbed like 20 times yesterday. That doesn't exactly work in his favor in this situation.

This is the first and only I'm hearing of it...

He got stabbed years ago.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... bn.02.html

lol my bad. Don't know where yesterday came from.

Well, it did happen yesterday in the broader sense of the term.