Former USC coach Larry Smith was instrumental in the formation of that rule, according to conference spokesman Jim Muldoon, and was acutely aware of gang-related issues.
Former NFL player Marcellus Wiley says he has known players to make gang signs while celebrating big plays, even if they have no direct association with those gangs.
"A lot of guys when they get into the league, they aren't actually throwing up gang signs as if they're still active gang members, or were ever gang members," said Wiley, who grew up in South Los Angeles. "But it's just like Reggie Bush wearing [the area code] 619 under his eyes. It's just kind of to symbolize where you came from."
The irony, Wiley said, is often the athlete flashing the sign was "allowed an opportunity to make it as far as we could without being approached by that lifestyle, that violence, all the stuff that went on in the neighborhood.
"We were given an access pass to get beyond those things. And then we get to the NFL and we want to be tough. We want to get to the NFL or NBA and we want to be hard, get tattoos everywhere, throw up gang signs. . . . And those guys know that. You don't live that lifestyle and graduate out of it.
"Where I'm from," he added, "you're not the one that wants to throw up a gang sign if you're in that neighborhood. Now, in front of millions of people on TV in the middle of the 50-yard line, who's going to attack you? Who's going to do something to you?
"But you do that on Slauson and Crenshaw and see what happens."
--
sam.farmer@latimes.com
