COLUMN: NFL has excess of fakers on the field
There’s a minute and a half left in the game and the team is in hurry up mode—no huddle offense. The crowd is cheering, a touchdown will secure the win.
The team lines up for their next play, a run play up the middle for a seven yard gain. When the dust clears you’re left with a vivid image, a defensive player clutching his knee as a few extra seconds tick off the clock.
And the Oscar goes to — Deon Grant, the New York Giants’ veteran safety.
It’s all too common in sports these days — exploiting an injury to your team’s advantage. While the practice is widespread, it is usually from the defensive side.
Maybe your linemen are tired. Maybe your defense is mismatched to the offensive personnel, you want to get a sub in, or you want to disrupt the offense’s rhythm.
You can shout about how unfair it is, how it ruins the integrity of the game, but it happens. It’s not just Grant’s controversial injury late in the game against the St. Louis Rams Monday night. Players everywhere are dropping — seemingly untouched — victims of imaginary injuries.
The worst part? Coaches coach it. Defenses are trying to stop a team, which drove the ball 70 yards down the field, a team that’s in the perfect no-huddle offense. Faked injuries are changing the outcome of the drive by changing one variable: game speed.
Why wouldn’t coaches tell their players to fake an injury? My biggest concern is not for the integrity of the game but safety of the players who are actually injured. If faking injuries becomes more and more common, then how does the training staff know if the injury is real or just an act?
It’s all part of the charade. The training staff has to keep up its end by rushing to attend to the injured player. The simplest way to make this happen: Don’t let them in on the secret. If the trainers start suspecting fakes and get lazy, then How will they react to a real injury?
Plenty of lives and careers have been saved by fast-acting medical personnel, especially when the injury involves a serious neck problem. Players should take comfort in knowing they will get the best medical care available, should they need it.
It’s debatable whether or not Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin gave Grant the go ahead. Rams QB Sam Bradford said he heard someone shouting “Someone go down,” and the next play, two players were on the ground nursing injuries.
After last weekend games, 32 teams received a memo from the NFL, threatening repercussions. The issue in itself is subjective. Who is to say what is going on inside someone else’s body?
Injuries such as cramps and neck stingers are momentarily paralyzing but can pass within seconds. It’s difficult to determine the extent of an injury or if there is an injury at all. It’s also near impossible to determine a coach’s influence.
Since there’s no magic machine that can tell us how much pain an athlete is in, the punishment is completely up to the referee’s discretion.
The NFL’s memo Sept. 21 sparked controversy around the league, among both players and coaches.
Many agree that while faking an injury may not win sportsmanship awards, it is a big part of the mental game. Real or fake, an injury gives teams a chance to regroup before the next play. It’s that tactical advantage prompting the fake injuries.
So what’s the solution? While the NFL’s punishments are well intended, there is too much room for opinion.
The only other option is forcing the offending player to sit for the rest of the series. Personally, I think this is the only way to solve the problem. If a player really is injured, they would come out of the game anyway.
If they recover quickly, they will be allowed back on the field in the next drive. If they are faking, they get their punishment — an official benching.
Next time a player thinks about falling to the field, stricken by a made-up ailment, maybe he’ll think twice before challenging the game’s integrity.
– Meredith Kinney is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism and she’s an avid hockey fan. She hopes to one day be a bigshot sideline reporter working for ESPN. Send comments to meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu.