Tight end Jared Cook tried to make it as clear as possible Wednesday that the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" gesture by he and four other Rams players was not meant as a slight or slam of police officers.

"Why would we come at the police in a disrespectful way when we work with the police in the community all the time?" Cook said following the team's afternoon practice at Rams Park. "The police are up here every day. There were four police cars here this morning when I pulled into work.

"The police have a picnic in the summer in our parking lot where they bring their kids and their children to meet-and-greet and have fun with us. So why would I disrespect a group of men that we have complete respect for in the community? That help us every day?"

Obviously many police officers in the St. Louis area and perhaps elsewhere did not take the gesture that way _ a gesture made when the five Rams players came out of the tunnel for pre-game introductions prior to Sunday's 52-0 victory over the Oakland Raiders.

It prompted an angry statement by the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which represents city police, and also drew criticism from the St. Louis County Police Association, and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police.