Context is key in penalizing 'Horns Down' gesture in SEC

DALLAS, Texas (KBTX) - The steely gaze of Southeastern Conference Coordinator of Officials John McDaid softened when asked the first question in a small media scrum on the second day of SEC Media Days.

For at least a year, the head of officials has fielded one particular question more than any other, which produces a well-rehearsed, almost robotic answer.

As the University of Texas is welcomed into the conference, what will be made of opposing players who flash the ever-popular “Horns Down” hand sign while taking the field against the Longhorns?

Simply put, context is everything.

“I asked my officials to use judgment of: Is it taunting an opponent? Is it making a travesty of the game? Or is it otherwise affecting our ability to manage the game?” McDaid said.

The eye test for taunting is straightforward. Is the gesture made towards a Longhorn player or directed at the Texas sideline? Or, has it been flashed as a celebration with fellow teammates? The latter would not draw a flag.

Making a travesty of the game is “something that offends the senses,” according to McDaid. Put the act in the context of a shopping mall or a grocery store. If it were deemed unsavory in that context, it could rise to the level of a penalty on the football field.

“If an opponent of Texas would score a touchdown and in celebration with their teammates, going back up the sideline, they’re giving the signal, that’s not an issue… Now, if he tackles a player and stands right over them and gives it, now we’ve got taunting and that would be unsportsmanlike conduct,” McDaid said.

Later in the conversation, with a sly grin creeping across his face, McDaid challenged the gathered media to check his answer against those he’s made in the past to see how closely it matches up, word-for-word.

Though Texas is new to the conference, using a school’s traditions as a form of taunting isn’t exclusive to the Longhorns. McDaid has been affiliated with the SEC since 2015, both as an on-field official and in his current coordinator role, and he’s seen opponents use the “Gator Chomp” against Florida or direct the “Land Shark” fin toward the Ole Miss defense. The same standards apply to those gestures, he said. However, the number of flags thrown in those instances since 2015 can be counted on one hand, he said.

While the act of raising a pointer and pinky finger upward and then snapping the wrist downward has existed in the context of the Longhorns for years, its profile was raised in 2021 when the Big 12 announced it would penalize any occurrence of the gesture. From then on, it became college football’s middle finger — used maliciously by some, but ironically by so many more.

“I know it’s a passionate topic, so I certainly don’t have any issue with it. The only thing that takes me back is how often I’m asked the question,” McDaid said with a smirk.

From his experience, McDaid knows fans don’t want officials taking the spotlight in a game that should be decided by the players on the field. Dropping a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct gives a team the advantage of 15 additional yards and, potentially a first down. So, the context in which the gesture is made must be “automatic,” he said.

“I ask my officials to not consider most acts automatic,” he said. “There are some automatics. Spitting at an opponent is an automatic. A throat slash is an automatic. But the rest of them? I want it to be evaluated in context.”

No coach or official has reached out to McDaid to lobby for the gesture to be a foul, he said. There was no conversation about how to adjudicate the signal when McDaid talked with head coach Steve Sarkisian at a conference head coach meeting in February, nor when he visited spring practice in Austin later in the year, he said. McDaid has known Sarkisian from the time he was an on-field official and the Texas headman was an assistant at Alabama.

“It wasn’t a brand new relationship. Our paths have crossed in the past and he at least knows of my work and what I represent from an officiating standpoint.”

So, standing in the hallway of the Omni Dallas Hotel in 2024, McDaid issued his well-rehearsed response one more time for the gathered media. But, he gets it. Topics like these are what make college football the unique spectacle that draws crowds of 100,000 or more every Saturday.

“The game is emotion and passion,” he said. “That’s what makes it so darn fun, right? And as an officiating unit, we need to deal with it.”