With Texas coming to the SEC, are hand gestures like ‘L’s Down’ on the way out?

One of the most resonant moments in the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry in recent years came after UK football had punished U of L 45-13 in the 2019 battle for the Governor’s Cup at Kroger Field.

After Scott Satterfield’s first exposure to the Wildcats-Cardinals grudge-fest proved acutely unsatisfying, the Cards coach was seen demonstrating the “L’s Down” hand gesture while having an animated postgame discussion with Mark Stoops.

Louisville has adopted “L’s Up” — using the hand to form an “L” by raising one’s index and middle fingers upward while turning the thumb perpendicular to the ground — as a school symbol.

That day, UK football players had repeatedly turned those into “L’s Down.”

Asked about the exchange between rival head coaches afterward, Stoops would not elaborate on what Satterfield had said.

“I don’t know if an ‘L’s Down’ is going to offend (U of L),” the Kentucky coach said. “There’s going to be a lot worse in this rivalry over time.”

What followed in the commonwealth was a robust sportsmanship debate over whether it is suitable for a rival to appropriate a school’s signature hand sign and deploy it for derisive use.

Within the Southeastern Conference, that topic may move front-and-center in coming years with the reality that Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the SEC at a still-to-be-determined future date.

Texas will bring to the SEC, arguably, the most iconic hand gesture in college sports. “Hook’em Horns” is made when one balls one’s hand into a fist but extends the pinky and index fingers to mimic the horns of a Longhorn.

To the chagrin of Texas supporters, in recent years the “Horns Down” variation has become almost as ubiquitous as the original.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, the former Oklahoma star, has attendees at his youth football camps practice “Horns Down.”

Runners who compete in the Texas Relays in Austin are assigned race bibs that contain the Longhorns logo. Texas A&M athletes turn those bibs upside down and, in doing so, turn horns downward.

Of course, sometimes derisive hand signals come back to bite you. After Texas Tech quarterback Alan Bowman directed the Red Raiders to a 56-41 lead over Texas late in last year’s game, he flashed “Horns Down” at the Longhorns bench.

Texas rallied to win 63-56 in overtime.

“Horns Down” has become so prevalent during games against the Longhorns that the Big 12 had — at least before the word broke that Oklahoma and Texas were exiting the league — determined to crack down.

At this year’s Big 12 Media Day, league coordinator of officials Greg Burks told reporters that “if you do a ‘Horns Down’ to a Texas player as an opponent, that’s probably going to be (called) a (personal) foul.”

In response, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer ripped the idea of assigning penalties for “Horns Down.”

So, too, did former Sooners head man Bob Stoops.

The opinionated ex-OU QB Mayfield took to Twitter to pan the “Horns Down” restrictions.

In fairness, the Big 12’s Burks did say that if an opponent threw the “Horns Down” gesture toward the crowd — but not at a specific Texas player — that “probably” would not be a penalty.

So now that Texas will be coming to the SEC, will there be a similar crackdown on “Horns Down?” If so, that would seem likely to spill over to “L’s Down.”

In the context of game management, you can’t let players get in the faces of opponents and taunt. Even something so mundane as clapping can be provocative if you do it in someone else’s personal space.

Otherwise, to me, the choice is simple: Either ban hand gestures on the field all together, or treat both teams the same.

That means if Texas throws “Horns Up” or Louisville goes “L’s Up” in celebration after a good play, it’s only fair that their opponents can turn those gestures downward after their own successes.

The odd thing about all the angst over teams commandeering their rivals’ hand signs for purposes of derision is that, in doing so, they are actually revealing how important their foes are.

So many teams deploy “Horns Down” because so many different schools consider Texas a major rival.

For decades, Louisville backers bemoaned that Kentucky didn’t treat U of L as an equal. The fact that Wildcats athletes have so fully embraced the “L’s Down” in recent years reflects how important beating U of L is to UK.

In that context, “L’s Down” is an unintended sign of respect.

So whether you are Texas, Louisville or any other team whose traditional hand gesture gets altered for use by a rival, there’s one unfailing way to stop that.

Win games, and you won’t have to worry about your Horns or your L’s being turned down.