Fake defensive injuries

[forensicbuzz]

The officials are told in the rule book to protect the player if there is any question about an injury. Also, by the wording, fake injuries do not "delay the officials from making the ball ready for play". That rule is for not allowing the ball to be retrieved, or interfering with the placement of the ball. That rule is not written as a penalty for anything that delays the game. There are 8 things specifically called out in that list, and fake injury is not one of them.

Stopping the officials from making the ball ready for play is EXACTLY what they are doing. Once the ball is made ready for play by the officials, the offense can snap the ball. That's EXACTLY what the defenders are doing. That rule is written for ANYTHING that delays the officials.

There is nothing in the rulebook prohibiting the officials from flagging a fake injury for delay of game.

Also from the rulebook in the Points of Emphasis:

FEIGNING AN INJURY—With the advent of the up-tempo offenses, there is a growing trend of defensive players feigning an injury in an attempt to slow down or break the rhythm of the offense and try to gain an unwarranted time out. Full protection under the rules should go to a player that indeed suffers an injury; however, on occasion some potential injuries are suspect, happen in unusual windows between plays and appear to be staged. The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury. Head Coaches are expected to set a culture within their team to ensure that this type of dishonest action will not be tolerated. Feigning an injury is not ethical and is completely against the spirit of fair competition. It is a bad look for our great game. For the 2024 season, the Rules Committee continues to authorize an administrative process for questionable game action. An institution or conference has the option to consult the national coordinator of football officials who would then facilitate a video review. After the review, the national coordinator will communicate any findings to the conference office for further action. Special attention is directed to the strongly-worded statement in The Football Code (coaching ethics, section g).

 

[RonJohn]

Stopping the officials from making the ball ready for play is EXACTLY what they are doing. Once the ball is made ready for play by the officials, the offense can snap the ball. That's EXACTLY what the defenders are doing. That rule is written for ANYTHING that delays the officials.

There is nothing in the rulebook prohibiting the officials from flagging a fake injury for delay of game.

Also from the rulebook in the Points of Emphasis:

FEIGNING AN INJURY—With the advent of the up-tempo offenses, there is a growing trend of defensive players feigning an injury in an attempt to slow down or break the rhythm of the offense and try to gain an unwarranted time out. Full protection under the rules should go to a player that indeed suffers an injury; however, on occasion some potential injuries are suspect, happen in unusual windows between plays and appear to be staged. The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury. Head Coaches are expected to set a culture within their team to ensure that this type of dishonest action will not be tolerated. Feigning an injury is not ethical and is completely against the spirit of fair competition. It is a bad look for our great game. For the 2024 season, the Rules Committee continues to authorize an administrative process for questionable game action. An institution or conference has the option to consult the national coordinator of football officials who would then facilitate a video review. After the review, the national coordinator will communicate any findings to the conference office for further action. Special attention is directed to the strongly-worded statement in The Football Code (coaching ethics, section g).

When Ball Is Ready for Play ARTICLE 4. A dead ball is ready for play when: a. With the 40-second play clock running, an official places the ball at a hash mark or between the inbounds marks and is in position to officiate. b. With the play clock set at 25 seconds, or at 40 seconds after an injury to or loss of helmet by a defensive team player, the referee sounds their whistle and either signals to start the game clock [S2] or signals that the ball is ready for play [S1]. (A.R. 4-1-4-I and II)

The ball is ready for play as soon as the ball is placed and the officials are ready. Most fake injuries happen after that. They do not prevent the ball being made ready for play. In rules, words mean things. Deciding that stopping play is the same as stopping "the ball being made ready for play", is a way to move towards rules not meaning what they actually say.

The FEGNING AN INJURY point of emphasis was added this year. It is not a rule, it is a general statement. It says: "The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury.". They should do that. They should make the actual rules say what they want to happen. Large US corporations avoided paying US taxes on oversees money for years because the tax code allowed them to do it. The public and politicians were publicly outraged that the large corporations did that. There were cries about how unfair it was, and how unethical it was. I don't know of any large corporations that repatriated large sums of money until the law was changed. We all agree that this is bad. It should be easy to get the rule changed, but for some reason it is not.

The actual rules say that the player gets protection if there is any question that he is injured. If the player isn't even down, but the official thinks he might be injured the official is required to call the timeout. If a player goes down, then the official MUST call a timeout. There is no way for the official to determine if he actually was injured or not. As I said in an earlier post, an xray might show something later that proves an off/on injury. There are too many ways for there to be an actual injury to ask the officials to make snap decisions on whether it was or not. I am pretty certain that the NCAA does not want an actual injured player to continue to play and risk further injury. A player who remained in the game with pain in his knee to avoid a penalty and ripped his ACL and MCL starting to push off on the knee would probably be able to file a lawsuit. Justified or not, he might win. Win or lose and it would add to the criticisms of the sport of football being a medically immoral sport. I highly doubt that the NCAA will ever put the officials in charge of deciding which injuries are valid and which are not.

 

[FlatsLander]

When you cheat to win, the win becomes less meaningful. Just look at how people view the Houston Astros world series that they won. It means less.

Sometimes there's a fine line between gaming the system and cheating. This is not one of them. I am all for gaming the system within the rules. Hack-a-shaq is gaming the system. Hidden ball trick is gaming the system. All good. Intentionally faking an injury is unacceptable on any level.

One of the hallmarks of American football is toughness. This is the antithesis of that and undermines everything that this game is supposed to represent. The minute that people are hurt, the game stops and we handle it. This makes it impossible to address legitimate injuries.

If hurry up offense are allowed, where the offense snaps the ball 3 seconds after the previous play is over, then I'm okay with a couple fake injuries.

 

[stinger78]

We are debating all around the issue: the game is built upon the premise of both offense and defense getting ready and then running a play. This is seen in the substitution rules where the D gets a chance to match offensive subs.

Up tempo challenged that, but D’s could still get ready. The more recent extreme tempos have taken that away. D’s have responded by faking injury. The solution is to assure that both teams can prepare for the next play.

 

[Root4GT]

Stopping the officials from making the ball ready for play is EXACTLY what they are doing. Once the ball is made ready for play by the officials, the offense can snap the ball. That's EXACTLY what the defenders are doing. That rule is written for ANYTHING that delays the officials.

There is nothing in the rulebook prohibiting the officials from flagging a fake injury for delay of game.

Also from the rulebook in the Points of Emphasis:

FEIGNING AN INJURY—With the advent of the up-tempo offenses, there is a growing trend of defensive players feigning an injury in an attempt to slow down or break the rhythm of the offense and try to gain an unwarranted time out. Full protection under the rules should go to a player that indeed suffers an injury; however, on occasion some potential injuries are suspect, happen in unusual windows between plays and appear to be staged. The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury. Head Coaches are expected to set a culture within their team to ensure that this type of dishonest action will not be tolerated. Feigning an injury is not ethical and is completely against the spirit of fair competition. It is a bad look for our great game. For the 2024 season, the Rules Committee continues to authorize an administrative process for questionable game action. An institution or conference has the option to consult the national coordinator of football officials who would then facilitate a video review. After the review, the national coordinator will communicate any findings to the conference office for further action. Special attention is directed to the strongly-worded statement in The Football Code (coaching ethics, section g).

All of that is Post Game Review for League action. Nothing about in game action! Note they never use the term "Illegal" in that discussion!

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

We are debating all around the issue: the game is built upon the premise of both offense and defense getting ready and then running a play. This is seen in the substitution rules where the D gets a chance to match offensive subs.

Up tempo challenged that, but D’s could still get ready. The more recent extreme tempos have taken that away. D’s have responded by faking injury. The solution is to assure that both teams can prepare for the next play.

Yes, people forget that when the extreme tempo offenses started to become popular many opposing coaches considered it “bush league”. Saban even commented “do we really want our game to turn into this” after losing to A&M and Manziel. The defense was eventually going to find its counter.

 

[forensicbuzz]

The ball is ready for play as soon as the ball is placed and the officials are ready. Most fake injuries happen after that. They do not prevent the ball being made ready for play. In rules, words mean things. Deciding that stopping play is the same as stopping "the ball being made ready for play", is a way to move towards rules not meaning what they actually say.

The FEGNING AN INJURY point of emphasis was added this year. It is not a rule, it is a general statement. It says: "The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury.". They should do that. They should make the actual rules say what they want to happen. Large US corporations avoided paying US taxes on oversees money for years because the tax code allowed them to do it. The public and politicians were publicly outraged that the large corporations did that. There were cries about how unfair it was, and how unethical it was. I don't know of any large corporations that repatriated large sums of money until the law was changed. We all agree that this is bad. It should be easy to get the rule changed, but for some reason it is not.

The actual rules say that the player gets protection if there is any question that he is injured. If the player isn't even down, but the official thinks he might be injured the official is required to call the timeout. If a player goes down, then the official MUST call a timeout. There is no way for the official to determine if he actually was injured or not. As I said in an earlier post, an xray might show something later that proves an off/on injury. There are too many ways for there to be an actual injury to ask the officials to make snap decisions on whether it was or not. I am pretty certain that the NCAA does not want an actual injured player to continue to play and risk further injury. A player who remained in the game with pain in his knee to avoid a penalty and ripped his ACL and MCL starting to push off on the knee would probably be able to file a lawsuit. Justified or not, he might win. Win or lose and it would add to the criticisms of the sport of football being a medically immoral sport. I highly doubt that the NCAA will ever put the officials in charge of deciding which injuries are valid and which are not.

We can debate this back and forth forever, which I won't. The fake injuries are happening before the ball is made ready for play. That's delay of game. In situations where it's done after the Head Referee blows the ball in play, I suppose it wouldn't be delay of game, but that's not what's happening here.

You're choosing a weird hill to take this stand on. The rules are very clear. The issue is that the officials are erring on the side of caution with the injury, which I don't blame them. But, that doesn't mean that it's not against the rules to fake injuries and there isn't a remedy.

 

[forensicbuzz]

All of that is Post Game Review for League action. Nothing about in game action! Note they never use the term "Illegal" in that discussion!

Yes, but the rule I provided is a rule and it does apply here (unless as @RonJohn pointed out it happens after the ball is made ready for play, which is almost never).

 

[forensicbuzz]

The ball is ready for play as soon as the ball is placed and the officials are ready. Most fake injuries happen after that. They do not prevent the ball being made ready for play. In rules, words mean things. Deciding that stopping play is the same as stopping "the ball being made ready for play", is a way to move towards rules not meaning what they actually say.

Feigning an injury is the same as kicking the ball away so the official can't get it to get it set in time, running down the field after the whistle has blown to prevent the officials from getting the ball ready for play, holding onto the ball, or preventing an opposing player from getting up, etc. These are all delay-of-game tactics and are against the rules. No one is "deciding" because the rules are clear. ANYTHING means ANYTHING.

The FEGNING AN INJURY point of emphasis was added this year. It is not a rule, it is a general statement. It says: "The Rules Committee had serious discussions on potential options on how to best take away incentive for players to feign an injury including adding additional time before a player could return from injury.". They should do that. They should make the actual rules say what they want to happen. Large US corporations avoided paying US taxes on oversees money for years because the tax code allowed them to do it. The public and politicians were publicly outraged that the large corporations did that. There were cries about how unfair it was, and how unethical it was. I don't know of any large corporations that repatriated large sums of money until the law was changed. We all agree that this is bad. It should be easy to get the rule changed, but for some reason it is not.

It is a point of emphasis because it has become a new way form of delay-of-game that wasn't used before. The discussion is about how to not make the officials discriminate between a feigned injury and a real injury. They're in serious discussions how to protect the officials (who already pretty much suck).

The actual rules say that the player gets protection if there is any question that he is injured. If the player isn't even down, but the official thinks he might be injured the official is required to call the timeout. If a player goes down, then the official MUST call a timeout. There is no way for the official to determine if he actually was injured or not. As I said in an earlier post, an xray might show something later that proves an off/on injury. There are too many ways for there to be an actual injury to ask the officials to make snap decisions on whether it was or not. I am pretty certain that the NCAA does not want an actual injured player to continue to play and risk further injury. A player who remained in the game with pain in his knee to avoid a penalty and ripped his ACL and MCL starting to push off on the knee would probably be able to file a lawsuit. Justified or not, he might win. Win or lose and it would add to the criticisms of the sport of football being a medically immoral sport. I highly doubt that the NCAA will ever put the officials in charge of deciding which injuries are valid and which are not.

Not in the actual rules.

 

[RonJohn]

We can debate this back and forth forever, which I won't. The fake injuries are happening before the ball is made ready for play. That's delay of game. In situations where it's done after the Head Referee blows the ball in play, I suppose it wouldn't be delay of game, but that's not what's happening here.

You're choosing a weird hill to take this stand on. The rules are very clear. The issue is that the officials are erring on the side of caution with the injury, which I don't blame them. But, that doesn't mean that it's not against the rules to fake injuries and there isn't a remedy.

I think we are basically talking in circles. I agree with you that this is bad.

We disagree about whether there is something currently in the rules that can solve it. The officials are not just erring on the side of caution, they are expressly told to do so in the rules. I do not believe that the officials trying to decide whether or not an injury is valid is an acceptable solution. I am almost certain that a post game video review by someone at NCAA's offices is not a valid solution. Having the rules changed to require an injured player sit out longer, such as the entire possession seems like a good solution to me. Even if it is just a cramp, the extra rest and possibly bicycle time would help with that. Instead of trying to find something in the rules that might be able to be used in some way to maybe have some kind of impact, change the darn rules to enact exactly what you want to happen. (or not happen)

 

[RonJohn]

Not in the actual rules.

Injury Timeout ARTICLE 6. a. In the event of an injured player(s): 1. An official will declare a timeout and the player(s) must leave the game. That player must remain out of the game for at least one down, even if that team is granted a team timeout. When in question, officials will take a timeout for an injured player.

 

[TooTall]

So the official not calling delay of game on the defense for faking an injury is the same as the official not calling holding on us on a 68 yard game winning run.

This is common sense, if the official does not call a penalty, then the play was not to the level of a penalty needing to be called.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I learned this in my career 100 years ago: if you have a rule you can't or won't enforce, get rid of it or change. Having rules and then ignoring them is a sure fire recipe for disaster in my experience. It's like a cancer that spreads to other areas.

So true. And it’s why college football has been a fake sport for decades because games were rigged by the NCAA because rules mattered for some teams and not for others. Look at Auburn as example A- mediocre program, buys Cam, wins Natties, back to mediocre. And the NCAA watched it unfold.

 

[Tommy_Taylor_1972]

With respect to others' opinions on the faking of injuries to break momentum or get a rest for defensive team, I maintain the opinion of Coach Alexander's "Code of a good spirit" of what a Georgia Tech athlete should that was written in the 1926 Blueprint. Two years later, Tech won their 2nd national championship. My dad was at Tech at that time and I read his yearbooks many times as a kid.

“Alex” was the first coach to lead his team to all four of the major bowls of the day: the Rose Bowl in 1929, the Orange Bowl in 1940, the Cotton Bowl in 1943, and the Sugar Bowl in 1944. Alexander also coached Tech to the 1928 national championship.

 

[Root4GT]

With respect to others' opinions on the faking of injuries to break momentum or get a rest for defensive team, I maintain the opinion of Coach Alexander's "Code of a good spirit" of what a Georgia Tech athlete should that was written in the 1926 Blueprint. Two years later, Tech won their 2nd national championship. My dad was at Tech at that time and I read his yearbooks many times as a kid.

“Alex” was the first coach to lead his team to all four of the major bowls of the day: the Rose Bowl in 1929, the Orange Bowl in 1940, the Cotton Bowl in 1943, and the Sugar Bowl in 1944. Alexander also coached Tech to the 1928 national championship.
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Good points. The "Fake Injuries" have become accepted part of college football. One should not do things that are legal and put your team at a distinct disadvantage!

 

[CuseJacket]

Show of hands.

Who here is upset about the fake injuries AND consistently drives at or below the speed limit?

 

[forensicbuzz]

I think we are basically talking in circles. I agree with you that this is bad.

We disagree about whether there is something currently in the rules that can solve it. The officials are not just erring on the side of caution, they are expressly told to do so in the rules. I do not believe that the officials trying to decide whether or not an injury is valid is an acceptable solution. I am almost certain that a post game video review by someone at NCAA's offices is not a valid solution. Having the rules changed to require an injured player sit out longer, such as the entire possession seems like a good solution to me. Even if it is just a cramp, the extra rest and possibly bicycle time would help with that. Instead of trying to find something in the rules that might be able to be used in some way to maybe have some kind of impact, change the darn rules to enact exactly what you want to happen. (or not happen)

I agree with all of this. My whole point is that there is something in the rulebook that could address this, but the officials won't use it, and I don't blame them.

It needs to be addressed, and that probably looks like a 5 second hold after the ball is put in play to allow the defense to get set. It's the same concept as the umpire not allowing the pitcher to quick-pitch the batter in baseball.