If you've watched college football in 2024, you may have noticed a new rules emphasis this season. Officials are cracking down more and more on celebrations in which players pretend to brandish guns and other weapons, freely giving out 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
“There’s a list of automatic unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. One of them in our rule book is simulating firing of a weapon,” Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, told the AP's Pete Iacobelli on Oct. 8. “That’s not really a judgement call.”
There may seem to fans a harmlessness to these fouls, but for Maryland coach Mike Locksley, the issue is personal.
"Let me just say this to you guys so everybody hears me very clearly," Locksley told his team earlier this month, as he recounted to Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post in an article published Wednesday afternoon. "I had a son that was murdered with a gun. Getting up and pointing and acting like you’re shooting a gun or you got a gun is not something that is funny to me or my family. And if that’s how you want to represent making a big play, then this program probably isn’t the one you should be in."
Locksley's son Meiko was shot and killed in Columbia, Md. on Sept. 3, 2017. He was just 25.
The coach has put an emphasis on gun-violence education off the field during his time with the Terrapins, during which he has won three bowl games on the field.
“Those are real issues that are close and personal to me and my family,” Locksley said.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Maryland Coach, Who Lost Son to Gun Violence, Decries Gun-Mimicking Celebrations.
