Puka Nacua apologizes after promising he would do an antisemitic touchdown celebration: 'I had no idea'

[AZLD4Candidate]

Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua apologized Thursday after he agreed to perform an antisemitic touchdown celebration during an appearance on a live stream.

Nacua issued a statement, saying he was unaware the celebration contained an antisemitic gesture.

Nacua appeared Tuesday on a livestream hosted by Adin Ross. During the stream, Ross had Nacua mimic the celebration and then encouraged Nacua to perform the dance during an NFL game after he scored a touchdown. Nacua agreed, saying, "Yeah, that's easy."

The celebration involved Nacua spiking the ball, flexing and then performing a gesture that references an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish person shared on social media websites, including 4chan.

Video of Nacua performing the celebration began circulating on social media, where California congressman Eric Swalwell demanded an apology from the Rams star on X.
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https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/puka-nacua-apologizes-after-promising-he-would-do-an-antisemitic-touchdown-celebration-i-had-no-idea-194408536.html
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Another fucking idiot. I love how this is always done to my people and people plea ignorance when caught. I imagine being in blackface wouldn't be able to plead ignorance.

The celebration in question

[RockRaven]

1. That he would go on the stream of, or associate with, Adin Ross says a lot more about

Nacua's mindset and values than any apology (which looks like something written by a professional PR person, btw) he offers.

[Ars Longa]

17. I'm pretty sure the team Ownership/NFL/Lawyers ect... had

a little word with Mr. Nacua about this idea!!

[maxsolomon]

2. He probably was ignorant of that gesture as he's not a 4Chan Incel Troll Edgelord.

He got tricked by Adin Ross, who I have never heard of. I have no clue what the gesture was, either.

Good on Nacua for apologizing immediately when Swalwell called him out.

Though he doesn't seem like a bad guy, I sure hope he fails to score a TD tonight.

Go Hawks!

[MorbidButterflyTat]

5. He definitely got tricked by that troll

And he apologized.

Don't get the celebration gesture, either.

I will be rooting for Seattle, too.

[AZLD4Candidate]

9. Go Bills!!

[MorbidButterflyTat]

13. 😀

[hlthe2b]

6. I didn't either. Honestly, I've never seen this gesture in reference to anything other than perhaps Dicken's Scrooge

I seem to recall some actors playing Ebenezer Scrooge (and probably Dicken's writings themselves) describing/making that devious gesture as they count their money to illustrate their greed. But, I certainly don't think there was any suggestion of Scrooge being Jewish.

So, I honestly don't know, but then I certainly don't frequent those sites either. News to me.

But, this player certainly should have known who he was hanging around with..

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. It's from "the happy merchant"

I thought it was from 1930s Germany. Apparently it’s from 1990s USA. Yikes.

The Happy Merchant is an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish man. The image appears commonly on websites such as 4chan, Reddit, Twitter and Instagram, where it is frequently used in antisemitic contexts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Merchant

[hlthe2b]

14. Yuck...

Pepe the Frog, I knew, but no... This is new to me.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Dickens was a huge anti-Semite.

While Scrooge, himself, was not a Jew, his actions, even descriptions were meant to evoke that of a greedy Jew. His "redemption" was turning away from being like a nasty, greedy Jew and returning to a good Christian life of charity. "Oliver Twist" was much more blatant in its anti-Semitism as were some of his other works. "A Christmas Carol" was about "redemption".

[EdmondDantes_]

3. What a blithering idiot

I get that I'm a person who doesn't do celebratory dances, but I can't figure out how that gesture qualifies as celebratory even if I could look past the antisemitic nature of it.

Shame because he seemed to be a cool story. But then he does this nonsense.

I do hope that much like blackface has gone out of fashion that this sort of bigotry does too. Given I've seen a couple of articles about this, maybe the negative publicity will help on that front.

[Raven123]

4. Maybe just put the football down and go back to the bench like a pro

The player antics are juvenile.

[Wonder Why]

7. On the same web page below that article was this article:

Why are there three NFL games on Christmas Day?

I can answer that in 100 words:

money x 100.

[Wiz Imp]

11. Sorry, but Nacua is a dishonest piece of shit

How can you not know that a gesture called "the covetous Jew" is anti-Semitic? I'm not buying his plea of ignorance or apology at all.

[dsc]

16. was he told its name

[RandiFan1290]

15. 'Centrist' haters of Bernie Sanders posted that meme on DU several years ago.

It was in reference to him owning more than one home.

[hlthe2b]

18. I would guess whoever did that is no longer here (PPR'd)... I've seen Pepe the Frog posted, but only for illustrative

purposes.

And those accusing the Left of hysterics over this country's move toward authoritarianism and the rise of absolute Fascist and Nazi factions, are damned clueless. I'd like not to know about these examples, but it is best that we ALL do.

[RandiFan1290]

19. No, they are still here. nt