Paul Pierce's Gang Signs

Guess we weren't the only ones who noticed...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-nflgangs&prov=ap&type=lgns

NFL steps up monitoring of players for gang signs

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.