HOUSTON -- Real or photo-shopped, the image was the rage on Twitter on Saturday afternoon.
It all started with a video of Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema and Texas Coach Charlie Strong taking part in the obligatory, cheesy handshake at the Texas Bowl news conference.
It was the type of photo opportunity most newspapers would have avoided, but sports anchor Aaron Peters of KNWA-TV in Northwest Arkansas and KARK-TV in central Arkansas videotaped about three seconds of it.
In the video it appears that Bielema did a downward Hook 'em Horns sign.
Bielema said he didn't, that it was just a flinch.
A snapshot taken from the video tends to disagree, but more than likely it was a lot less offensive to the Texas Longhorns than it was excitable for Arkansas Razorbacks fans.
By now the Longhorns have seen hundreds of downward Hook 'em Horns signs. A few years ago Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt flashed it after a victory over the Longhorns in Austin, Texas, and some folks got very excited. Texas Coach Mack Brown said it was no big deal, that everyone has seen that sign.
More than likely it will not be bulletin board material for Texas going into tonight's Texas Bowl.
It might, however, excite the Razorbacks team to know that their head coach is so much on their side that he disrespected the Longhorns in front of a few dozen media folks.
Yet, from the kickoff to the final play, it will be about preparation for a bowl sponsored by Advocare, which makes an energy drink powder that is mixed with water. It was previously sponsored by Meineke Car Care, which everyone knows sells car parts, oil and other things to keep you car running.
Obviously ESPN and the folks running the Texas Bowl -- an arm of the Houston Texans who took over after the Houston Bowl faced elimination for owing a couple of conferences $600,000 -- have seized on the fact that this game is the only game being played on Monday night and the fact that the Hogs and Longhorns had a long rivalry as brothers in the old Southwest Conference.
Honestly, the Arkansas-Texas game always meant more to the Razorbacks than it did to the Longhorns. In those days Texas was like Alabama of the SEC. It was the team everyone wanted to beat, and opposing fans loved to hate them.
The three Texas players who attended the news conference Saturday pretty much downplayed the importance of playing the Hogs or playing in NRG Stadium. Of course, the Longhorns play Oklahoma every year in a huge game, and their home games are played in front of about 30,000 more than are expected for tonight's sold-out game.
Let's be real about this sellout. Only a few thousand tickets were offered to the public. Sponsors received the lion's share, just as they do in most bowl games anymore. Today's bowl games aren't chamber of commerce events to help the city raise money during the holidays when people aren't staying in hotels or eating out.
Today's bowl games are all about ESPN and sponsorship.
Still, one of these teams will leave the game with a losing record of 6-7 and the other with a winning record of 7-6, and it is obvious recruiting is a bit easier if you are coming off a victory rather than a loss.
The Longhorns may have other teams they consider bigger rivals than the Hogs, who left the SWC 22 years ago, and they may play in a bigger stadium than this NFL home, but they are still taking the game serious.
The Razorbacks, especially the seniors, might take it a little more serious because they can become known as the guys who stopped the bleeding at Arkansas.
Both teams will be prepared to play, and if it comes down to motivation there is a chance someone will show Bielema flashing the downward Hook'em Horns sign.
That someone will likely be in the Arkansas dressing room, where that might mean something.
Sports on 12/29/2014