Can you guess the semi-obscene hand gesture? I bet you caaannn!

Prep Football: Photo raises a furor in Carroll

Three Carroll High School football players face a one-game suspension for making what the school has deemed obscene hand gestures in a team photograph.

This photo of the Carroll High School football team ran in the Carroll Daily Times Herald on Monday. The newspaper altered the photo before publication to "blur" four players, three of whom were making similar hand gestures and a fourth whom the paper judged not to be acting in a "respectable manner."
The decision prompted one boy's father to resign as a booster club president and left the local newspaper explaining its decision to publish an altered version of the photo.
The newspaper "blurred" four players in the photo, three of whom were making similar hand gestures and a fourth whom the newspaper judged not to be acting in a "respectable manner." The fourth player was not suspended from playing.

Mike Bach, the father of one of the suspended players, contended that the hand gesture the boys made is not obscene and has been commonly displayed by athletes in other sports at the school, as well as by widely known college athletes.

The gesture had become so accepted at the school, Bach said, that a varsity head coach at Carroll High used a picture of a player showing the gesture as a screen saver on his school computer.

"There was absolutely no intention at all to disrespect themselves or Carroll High School or the general public," Bach said of the suspended boys. He said he has requested that the school reconsider its decision.

Carroll High Superintendent Rob Cordes would not comment on the players' suspensions. He said the coach mentioned by Bach voluntarily removed the screen saver and had been unaware that the gesture could be interpreted as offensive.

The gesture, involving the middle, index and pinky fingers, goes by various names including "the shocker" when the connotation is sexual in nature. [when is it NOT?]