Horns Down is BACK - SEC Comes To Their Senses And Says They Won't Penalize The Anti-Texas Gesture Moving Forward

DALLAS -- Texas arrives for its first appearance at SEC media days Wednesday, but an old Longhorns storyline preceded them a day prior.

SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid was asked if "Horns Down," the taunting gesture employed by Texas foes, would be a penalty as it often was in the Big 12, where it fell under the definition of unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Horns Down phenomena was something strange to watch unfold. It's not every day you get to see a brand new slur develop in real time. Texas Longhorn fans had been flashing the "Horns Up" hand gesture since 1955. Then.. according to Google... in 1963 a Baylor student had the brilliant idea to flip the gesture upside down. Texas Longhorn opponents have been turning their hand gesture against them ever since. But for whatever reason, nearly half a century later, the powers at be decided that brandishing a Horns Down in the face of a Longhorn is akin to goosestepping in the face of a Holocaust survivor. Longhorn fans were all of the sudden disgusted at the behavior of their rivals. Children in Austin, Texas were coming home from school in shambles because their classmates were Horns Downing them at recess. Something had to be done about it. If not, the state of Texas as a whole was going to implode on itself. So the Big 12 banned the gesture entirely. Horns Down was now punishable by death. 

Was the Big 12 only doing this because they thought just maybe if they sucked the University of Texas' dick long, hard, and slow enough that they might reconsider bailing on the conference entirely in favor of one of the only 2 remaining conferences that actually matter? Almost certainly. But it didn't work. They didn't suck it hard enough. Texas is in the SEC now. And the SEC isn't going to cater to the University of Texas like the Big 12 did. The SEC will be perfectly fine with or without them. In reality, they want nothing more than for Jalen Milroe to scramble for an 80-yard touchdown against the Texas Longhorn defense in the SEC Championship and give a triumphant Horn Down right in Bevo's stupid cow face. That's just good television. Good television = more money. 

I'm a big fan of SEC Coordinator of Officials John McDaid's quote as well.

"The act itself needs to be offending to the senses," McDaid said. "If you took that act out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or a grocery store, would it offend the senses to a majority of the reasonable people in the area? That signal would not. You might have some people that share that signal with you, if you did that at a grocery store or a shopping mall, depending where you are. We're going to evaluate it in context." 

That's a pretty good litmus test. If you can do it in a grocery store and nobody gives a shit, then you can do it on a football field. Anything you can do in a grocery store without offending anyone should be allowed on a football field

Middle finger = OUT

Flashing penis = OUT

Taking a shit on the ground = OUT

Pointing your index & pinky finger to the ground = IN

Horns Down is back. And because the University of Texas had to throw a fit about it for the last few seasons, and let people know how much it truly bothers them, it's about to be back in a big way. Texas is about to get a Horns Downed every time they let up a first down.

T's & P's to Rodney Terry come basketball season.