I guess in a league where half the players have been arrested at some point in time, it makes sense to do this - the NFL is going to start reviewing game tapes to see if players have been flashing gang signs on the field in celebration. Thug life!

And what will the NFL so if they catch a player flashing a gang sign? Why, send him to South Central LA and force him to make the sign again. No, I kid. They'll probably just fine them. Although I like my idea much better.

Now, while you can imagine how there are about a million ways that this could go wrong (see Larry Johnson's hand sign that is actually just an L and a J) the league is quite serious about penalizing players who flash gang signs and has even hired several experts to examine game tapes and identify potentially questionable signs.

This all stems from Paul Pierce flashing a Piru Bloods sign at Al Horford during the NBA Playoffs.

"We were always suspicious that [gang-related hand signals] might be happening," said Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating. "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."

Of course, the problem here is that there's a lot open to interpretation, even to experts. Plus, sometimes people try to find things that aren't really there. People once speculated that Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles' head pound gesture was a gang sign. If it was, that's the lamest gang ever. Old, white, fat, sportswriters have also occasionally ripped NBA players for throwing up the "three" sign, claiming it's a gang symbol (no, see they just hit a three). Because we all know old white sportswriters are hip to the what's going on on the streets.

Anyway, we'll see how this turn's out come the beginning of the season. At least the NFL is supposedly bringing in experts. But still, be prepared by Week 3 to have some player steamed to high heaven for flashing some sign that he says wasn't gang related at all.

I'm looking at you, Larry Johnson.

Concerned about gang signs, NFL reviews tapes [LA Times]