There's a weird crackdown on finger gun celebrations in the NFL and college football

I’ll start right off the bat and say that we need better gun control in the United States.

But we’re not going to get that just because the NFL and college football referees are whistling players for doing the “finger guns” motion during games.

What’s more: if this is one of those things the league or the NCAA has asked for more flags on, then it feels very performative.

Let’s start with the trend. Here’s a partial list of NFL players who have been either penalized, fined or both for finger guns: Darius Slayton, Josh Downs, Allen Lazard and Drake London. On the college side, Oklahoma State QB Alan Bowman got whistled, and South Carolina’s Dylan Stewart got a flag.

Dylan Stewart just sacked Jaxson Dart and immediately got up and pretend to shoot him pic.twitter.com/mMobe6W77I

— College Football Headlines (@CFBHeadlines) October 5, 2024

Darius Slayton was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty on this celebration pic.twitter.com/LyggYUcJOZ

— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) October 6, 2024

The refs just called Josh Downs for unsportsmanlike conduct for an ‘illegal demonstration’

We’re witnessing the worst era of football officiating pic.twitter.com/fAocewZ3Ir

— Kicks (@kicks) October 6, 2024

Where is this coming from? Pro Football Talk spoke to an NFL spokesperson:

“Not commenting on a specific player,” a league spokesperson said, “but that’s been a longstanding rule as part of the reference to any violent gesture. It’s also part of the players’ manual.”

The rule that lists the various forms of unsportsmanlike conduct does indeed mention “[a]ny violent gesture.” And, despite the comment above, our position has always been that the league makes the rules and the players follow them. That presumes the league shares the rules with the players.

So this means that we’ve had years and years of finger guns and suddenly it’s being enforced in 2024. Right.

Now, as someone who supports gun control, I should be happy with this, right? Except, like I said, it feels performative, like the “end racism” and “it takes all of us” written in end zones. You like the gesture in theory, but it takes A LOT more action than words sprayed on turf to make change.

Sure, the NFL does support of “Grant Partners” like Peace for DC, which is “committed to ending gun violence in DC by building up the community violence intervention workforce which forms the backbone of DC’s alternative system of public safety.”

But there’s more that could be done, whether in statements or other support. Just in February, the great J.A. Adande wrote this in Bloomberg:

We have seen the NFL throw its weight behind important causes, such as breast cancer awareness and research, and it’s pledged more than $265 million to the Players Coalition that was formed to fight for racial and social equality. Now, for the sake of the safety of its fans, it needs to advocate for stronger gun control laws. …

The NFL could take the same approach to guns that the Players Coalition it funds has taken to racial justice and police reform, which is to seek legislative changes at local levels. Among the achievements the coalition claims are helping to pass a Kentucky state law that partially bans no-knock search warrants, such as the kind that ended in the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, and advocating for a Florida amendment that restored voting rights for 1.4 million citizens with past criminal convictions.

So, while cracking down on finger guns is a visible way to suggest a need gun control, there’s more that needs to be done.