NFL Looks for Gang Signs on Game Tapes

The NFL is hiring experts to pore over game tapes looking for players flashing gang signs, the Los Angeles Times reports. “There have been some suspected things we've seen,” said a league security official; one former player's not so sure: "People have got signs for their kids, signs for their fraternities. How do you differentiate who's really throwing up gang signs?"

The NFL's move was spurred in part by the NBA, which fined Boston star Paul Pierce for making “menacing gestures” in an April game. "It will be dealt with harshly," one NFL official said. "The commissioner is not going to stand for gang signals on the field"—though the league does not believe the problem is widespread. (More gangs stories.)