So....Gamesmanship in College Football?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2010/11/oregon_football_fake_injuries_1.html

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/16021/fake-injuries-vs-oregon-little-can-be-done

There aren't any rules against it, and it DID work, personally I think it is hilarious. The thing is, how do you stop it? Players can tear an ACL with nobody touching them or get a concussion on any play (A violent hit really isn't required.) I guess you can punish coaches or make players sit out games, but actually determining what is an "injury" and what isn't seems pretty damn difficult to sort out.

(As if I needed more justification as to finding watching an entire football game boring as hell: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html)

I was at the Stanford Oregon game and thought it was pretty disgusting to see the Autzen crowd Boo an injured player. Then when the injured player came back into the game 1 play later, I didn't feel so bad.

If you have to fake injuries to slow down the Oregon offense, you aren't going to win, so it doesn't bother me so much. I wouldn't say that it worked. Cal just played great defense.

I would like to see the boo birds wait to come out until an allegedly injured player comes back onto the field. Someday someone will actually be injured and it's not cool to boo them.

Is it worth it? That's what a coach has to ask. The injured player has to come out for a play. I supposed you could premeditate this, send in a second stringer with instructions to flop and replace him with a starter the next play. Either way you'll have at least one play with a lineup not including a starter. Are you deep enough on defense to try this against Oregon's offense? Only one way to find out I guess!

I'm reminded of US sports fans this summer who commented on diving and simulations in the World Cup. I even recall a certain AD railing on me about that being what is wrong with the sport last year, and taking pride that that kind of stuff didn't happen in the All American sport of football, which he played.





In soccer, you can get carded or sent off for simulation. In football, apparently, the conference sends a "tsk, tsk" letter to the coach the next week about the purity of the sport.

This goes in the archives along with the Vlady Divac clips.

Perhaps, at a minimum, the player could be barred from re-entering until the ref allows it, or the player could be barred for the rest of the drive, just to make sure he is OK.