No, Texas fans don't care about the 'Horns Down' taunts anyway

As SEC Media Days rolled into their second day on Tuesday, the conference's coordinator of officiating John McDaid spent a sizable amount of time explaining how the league plans to enforce penalties when Texas opponents flash the 'Horns Down' hand gesture.

Within a couple hours, there were breathless news articles on the topic from the New York Times ( via The Athletic ), Sports Illustrated , Yahoo , and USA Today .  There were also different interpretations on what McDavid actually said from the likes of college football cognoscenti Brett McMurphy and Bob Ballou .

Here were the official comments from McDaid on how the league plans to enforce the penalty in the year ahead:

"The play rule that would be applicable for [horns down] would be unsportsmanlike conduct," McDaid began. "We need to read into the context in which it is done. I ask my officials to use judgment of, 'Is it taunting an opponent? Is it making a travesty of the game? Or is it otherwise affecting our ability to manage the game.'"

After noting that a "travesty of the game" means that the gesture would have to be offensive both within and outside of a football context to be penalized, McDaid zeroed in on the taunting aspect of the gesture.

"If an opponent of Texas would score a touchdown and the celebration with teammates going back up the sideline is giving the signal, that's not an issue. We have that already in the Southeastern Conference. We have teams that have things like the 'gator chomp' or things like the 'shark fin' for the defense where that thing has been done. Over the years we evaluate it. Is it taunting? Is it making a travesty of the game? Is it otherwise affecting our ability to manage the game? If the answer is no, then it's not a foul."

Yet the irony behind all the spilled ink and breathless hot takes is just how little it matters to the people who are allegedly being offended: Texas fans.

Ask almost any Texas fan about 'Horns Down' and they'll laugh off the gesture just as they laugh off allegedly "rivalries" with the likes of Texas Tech and West Virginia. Are those programs "annoying"? Sure, a bit like a gnat is annoying to a horse. Neither raises to level of a genuine horse fly, let alone a braying donkey or another horse entering the paddock.

And yet, in part because of the SEC's newly delineated policy on enforcing potential 'Horns Down' penalties, there will almost certainly be a flashpoint in the season ahead when a penalty is called controversially. A decision will be made about whether a player intended to taunt a Texas opponent, even if that Texas opponent largely isn't worried about what they just saw.

Naturally, that will only be magnified if the taunt comes when the Longhorns are up by multiple touchdowns, as has happened a number of times in past 'Horns Down' incidents.

And when that time inevitably comes, most Texas fans will mirthfully look on at fans from Mississippi State, or Kentucky, or yes, even Vanderbilt, all too comfortable in the knowledge that cheering for a team from Austin, with the heritage and history of the Longhorns is worth far more than the minor annoyance of dealing with sporadic moments of macho aggression from players and fans in far less desirable locations.