Texas State Players Perform Brilliant Sign Language Version of "Uptown Funk"

Brian Guendling is awesome. Guendling, a defensive end at Texas State, is the son of Mike Guendling, the 33rd pick in the 1984 NFL Draft. Brian has two uncles who are both deaf and mentally challenged and spent pre school through high school in the special education program. Through those experiences, Brian became close with a portion of the population that most people have little connection with. As a junior in high school, he took up American Sign Language as his foreign language.

At Texas State he made new deaf friends. Those experiences inspired the video above. Here’s a small portion of the YouTube description (Which I encourage you to read in its entirety here):

"I have met a wonderful group of deaf people here. I drive an hour away a few days out of the week to hang out with them. I ask them all, “Do you guys want to go out to the bars with me?” and they all respond, “Why when we cannot associate ourselves with the crowd and it would be awkward for us to just stand in the corner of the bar?” Then I asked other deaf people in Texas and California if they have ever been to a concert. ALL responded “NO”!! But every single one of them replied that they would WANT TO ATTEND A CONCERT!"

This ASL version of Uptown Funk is the first in a series of concert videos. Heck, if you take away the sign language aspect of the video, that’s still some impressive choreography and production value for a bunch of college kids. When you add the backstory and the sign language component, it’s downright incredible.