Michael Ventre

Signs can often be misinterpreted. For instance, when Brett Favre called a press conference back in March and sobbed his way through a retirement speech, I took that as a sign that he wasn’t coming back to the NFL. I kick myself now for being so blind.

I sometimes see signs that say “Sale” and then “70 Percent Off,” but I look closer and in tiny print it says “Up to” before the giant “70 Percent Off.” A dog can seem very sweet, but when he sinks his teeth into your leg, it’s a sign that he’s not.

The NFL is having trouble with signs. Specifically, it wants to crack down on gang signs. It appears that some professional athletes may possibly be making gestures of the kind that street gangs make to each other, and the league want to make a sign of its own that says, “Don’t Go There.”

There is a sign that can be made by the thumb and index finger that, when placed against the forehead, forms the letter “L,” as in “Loser.” This is a sign that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his associates are in danger of displaying if they’re not careful on how they handle this sign language snafu.

The league has hired experts to look at game tapes and identify players or team officials who might be suspected of flashing gang signs, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. This comes about in the aftermath of an incident in which Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics was fined $25,000 in April for a gesture he made at the Atlanta Hawks’ bench.

This whole crackdown on nefarious signage could be interpreted as a genuine attempt by an American business entity to keep criminal influences out of its ranks. Or, it could be seen as racist.

I don’t know what a gang sign is and isn’t. I know that I could sit here and create a sign with my hands that could either be viewed as a bunny rabbit shadow puppet, or as a warning to my neighbor that I will massacre his shrubs if he blocks my driveway again — and there isn’t an expert in the world who could tell the difference.

I’m impressed that there actually are authorities out there in street gang sign language who can make sense of all this, but I have to think that it is an inexact science at best. A particular show of the fingers of the right hand by one of the Bounty Hunter Bloods might be a call to arms against a rival set, whereas that exact same display by a member of Yale’s Skull and Bones could be an invitation to wine and cheese party.

With that in mind, the crackdown on gestures by NFL players appears to be an overreaction — and one that could brand the league as being insensitive to minorities.

Not long ago, the NBA took some flak for imposing a dress code. It felt many of its players were treating each day on the job as if it were Casual Friday, and it instituted a policy that required its employees to wear such items as a shirt with a collar and a sports jacket when they were not in uniform but still representing their teams.

While many felt the NBA was determined to rid itself of what it deemed an overly pervasive hip-hop influence, the new rules were really nothing new in society. There was a lot of latitude within the new code, and it really isn’t much to ask an employee of any company to report for work in something other than a tank top and a fedora.