DALLAS -- What events are synonymous with summer? Maybe water skiing on Memorial Day, fireworks on the Fourth of July, and 'Hey, is Horns Down going to be a penalty this year?' at conference media days.

“I always called it, ‘The gift that keeps on giving because it’s an issue that won’t go away," long-time columnist Kirk Bohls said. 

Here's a secret: sports media members need content when there are no sports. Every year at Big 12 Media Days, Bohls, then with the Austin American-Statesman, asked the question, and Big 12 Coordinator of Officials Greg Bruks would give an answer to feed a room-full of hungry sportswriters.

“Let me put it this way: If you do a Horns Down to a Texas player as an opponent, that’s probably going to be a foul,” Burks said in July 2021.

'Horns Down is a foul,' is lighter fluid for social media. But like most viral quotes, it avoids nuance in favor of flammability.

In reality, Burks and the Big 12 were consistently in accordance with NCAA rule 9-2-1, which states that, 'No player, substitute, coach or other person subject to the rules shall use abusive, threatening or obscene language or gestures, or engage in such acts that provoke ill will or are demeaning to an opponent, to game officials or to the image of the game."

In layman's terms - Horns Down is a foul when the opponent does it in the face of a Texas player.

The SEC's coordinator of officials, John McDaid, said at the conference's media days on Tuesday that unsportsmanlike conduct needs to be in one of three categories. Is it taunting an opponent? A travesty to the game? Does it compromise an official's ability to manage the game? For Horns Down, only taunting applies.

“If you took that act out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or grocery store, would it offend the senses to a majority of the regional people in the area?" McDaid said. "That signal would not. You might have some people that share that signal with you if you did that in a grocery store.”

The SEC and the Big 12 share the exact same criteria for penalizing Horns Down. The only difference is the SEC actually has other programs with ubiquitous hand signals - Florida's Gator Chomp and Ole Miss's 'Landshark' celebration. In 2012, Georgia running back Todd Gurley got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for doing the gator chomp after scoring a touchdown, as did Tennessee running back John Kelly in 2017. Alabama running back Josh Jacobs drew a penalty for doing the landshark in an Ole MIss player's face after a touchdown.

McDaid has been an official with the SEC since 2015 and said he could count less than five times when an opposing player mimicking another team's hand signal qualified as unsportsmanlike conduct. And it's happened more than five times. So will Horns Down be penalized at some point this year in an SEC football game? Probably. Is it an automatic? It never has been.

And who cares, really?

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In 2012, Texas Longhorns wide receiver Mike Davis stood triumphant in the end zone after a 75-yard touchdown, facing thousands of Texas Tech fans who berated the Longhorns with Horns Down signals all afternoon. He returned the favor by defiantly holstoring two imaginary pistols, a play on the Red Raiders' 'Guns Up' sign. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“That’s something we ought to talk about as a league,” Texas head coach Mack Brown said on Monday after the game. “The Horns down are disrespectful for players on the field. If Horns down are OK, we ought to have guns down be ok.”

That rule change never happened. Then Big 12 coordinator of officials Walt Anderson told Bohls in November 2012 the conference wouldn't crack down on it.

"One thing the NCAA does not want to do is get into being the gesture police," Anderson said.

But West Virginia forced its hand in a 2018 showdown in Austin. Mountaineer wide receiver David Sills V flashed a double Horns Down after scoring a touchdown, the same as Davis in 2012, and was flagged. Later in the game, quarterback Will Grier threw a double Horns Down after scoring the go-ahead two-point conversion to cap a 42-41 upset win. He was also penalized. 

Tempers were hot in Texas's postgame lockeroom, not an hour after a loss that nearly derailed the Longhorns' Big 12 title hopes.

"It bothers us a lot because, I mean, we take pride and what we do in that logo," wide receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey told reporters. "For schools just to disrespect us for no reason, it really pisses me off and a lot of guys off. I guess that's what comes with it when you're a top-tier program and people don't like you."

But Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger drew the most ire for a Tweet he posted after the game. Ehlinger later deleted the post, but screenshots live forever. A lifelong Texas fan, Ehlinger had opened himself up to an internet roast 

"I remember every single team/player that disrespects the rich tradition of the University of Texas by putting the Horns down. Do not think it will be forgotten in the future,” Ehlinger wrote.

Ahead of Texas and Oklahoma's matchup in the 2018 Big 12 Championship, the conference held a call with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, football operations director Ed Stewart and both head coaches. Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley asked if Horns Down would be a penalty, then told media members after Oklahoma couldn't do the signal. But on the Dan Patrick show a day before the game, Bowlsby said he could see a scenario where Horns Down wasn't flagged.

“Yeah, I think if it’s not intended to demean an opponent, to taunt an opponent, to draw attention to oneself,” Bowlsby said.

The Big 12 would repeat this sentiment - it's only a flag if done as a taunt - over and over. Every year, it'd go viral. The problem is that's the most fun way to do it. So who was to blame for robbing fans of that joy? Texas. The Longhorns were soft. 

Except, aside from comments made directly after the West Virginia game, Texas players and coaches haven't complained about the gesture.

“We’ve been disrespected for as long as that hand signal has been around,” Herman said ahead of the Big 12 Championship. “We’re kinda used to it.”

“It’s an unbelievable compliment to the University of Texas,” UT athletic director Chris Del Conte told The Austin American-Statesman. “When we live in the brains and minds and hearts of individuals who go Horns down, it’s an incredible compliment. We’re glad you’re thinking of us. It tells you about the reckoning of the brand.”

Really, the only coach or player triggered by the 'Horns Down' in the past six years is Texas basketball head coach Rodney Terry. After a comeback victory in January, UCF players jubilantly threw Horns Down, to which Terry yelled, 'That's classless!' before admonishing UCF in his postgame press conference.  Three days later, after cooler head prevailed, he offered an apology to head coach Johnny Dawkins.

"I apologize to our fan base as well, and understand what it means to be the head coach at the University of Texas and what our brand stands for," Terry said three days later.

Fans of the brand know they cannot admit the brand's mocking bothers them because it will only open the floodgates. But by the letter of the law, it's a penalty in certain applications on a football field, representing the program's perceived sensitivity.

“I’m sure we’ll probably see it called at least once this SEC season,” Bohls said.

And when that happens, the internet will do what it does best. Yell at no one.