What about the ''fake injury'' loophole?

PrestonyteParrot

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May 28, 2024
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Talk about rapid reaction. Oregon's 12-man penalty loophole was quickly closed by the NCAA and yet the ''fake injury'' loophole lingers untouched.
Too hot to handle?
 

will110

Joined Aug 17, 2018
Jan 20, 2022
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Talk about rapid reaction. Oregon's 12-man penalty loophole was quickly closed by the NCAA and yet the ''fake injury'' loophole lingers untouched.
Too hot to handle?
Definitely a lot more complicated than the 12 man loophole.

If you require a player to sit out the rest of a series after an injury stoppage, that likely pushes the pendulum too far the other direction. You'll have players try to fight through something they shouldn't.

Perhaps there could be a delay of game penalty or the like for players who clearly are falling down to slow things down. I saw the clip of Jaxson Dart waving at the running back, who then randomly falls down. That seems like a clear delay of game.
 

18IsTheMan

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Jan 19, 2022
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Definitely a lot more complicated than the 12 man loophole.

If you require a player to sit out the rest of a series after an injury stoppage, that likely pushes the pendulum too far the other direction. You'll have players try to fight through something they shouldn't.

Perhaps there could be a delay of game penalty or the like for players who clearly are falling down to slow things down. I saw the clip of Jaxson Dart waving at the running back, who then randomly falls down. That seems like a clear delay of game.

Yes, much more complicated.

You could say a player has to sit out the rest of a series, but that's not gonna be much of a penalty if a defensive player fakes an injury on a 3rd down.

It would be asking a lot of refs to discern real from fake injuries. Yes, we all can tell what some of the fake ones are, like the one you mention.

There's probably no way to fix it without some legitimate injuries getting penalized. Delay of game sounds reasonable, but I'm not sure what the criteria would be. I would say it just has to be based on common sense. If the injury doesn't seem to be apparently linked to a play (i.e. a player slow to get up after getting hit) but a player a just randomly falling down without contact, then it could be delay of game. Major judgement call though.

It's a very scummy and cruddy thing to do.
 
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Lurker123

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Jan 18, 2022
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There's probably no way to fix it without some legitimate injuries getting penalized.

This.

I think of it like that famous quote about our justice system. I would rather 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man get punished.

I would err on the side of allowing the fake injuries, rather than penalize legitimate injuries.

I like the notion of treating like the helmet coming off. Obviously the guy has to sit out a play. What if we made it 2?
 
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PrestonyteParrot

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May 28, 2024
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Definitely a lot more complicated than the 12 man loophole.

If you require a player to sit out the rest of a series after an injury stoppage, that likely pushes the pendulum too far the other direction. You'll have players try to fight through something they shouldn't.

Perhaps there could be a delay of game penalty or the like for players who clearly are falling down to slow things down. I saw the clip of Jaxson Dart waving at the running back, who then randomly falls down. That seems like a clear delay of game.
I agree it's more difficult, but both are intentional and now one will stop and the other will continue.
A player has to sit out a play if his helmet comes off unintentionally. The ''fake injury'' thing has to be addressed with something more significant than that or the game is going suffer and become more unwatchable. I know the networks love it because of the additional commercial breaks but fans in the stands are being bored to death.
Maybe the way to fix it is to put it on the coach in some way - fines, suspensions, etc. or other ideas others may have.
 
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will110

Joined Aug 17, 2018
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This.

I think of it like that famous quote about our justice system. I would rather 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man get punished.

I would err on the side of allowing the fake injuries, rather than penalize legitimate injuries.

I like the notion of treating like the helmet coming off. Obviously the guy has to sit out a play. What if we made it 2?
That's already the rule. If a player comes out for an injury, he has to sit for a play at least.

In the NFL, if a player gets injured inside of 2 minutes, the injured player's team is forced to call timeout. Perhaps an idea along those lines could be used.
 
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PrestonyteParrot

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The coach has to be condoning or going along with the ''fake injury'' model or otherwise he would not allow it.
I'm beginning to think targeting the coach is the way to stop it.
 

I4CtheFuture

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Oct 5, 2024
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The coach has to be condoning or going along with the ''fake injury'' model or otherwise he would not allow it.
I'm beginning to think targeting the coach is the way to stop it.
Then I think the only way to discourage it has to be a hit to recruiting somehow because these coaches make too much $$ to care about fines. I know you didn't mention fines but I think the best way to target the coach directly is for the penalty to occur in game.

Just make it - if the ref has to stop the game - it's delay of game. Offense or defense. 5 yard penalty. Period.

I don't buy the argument that it would make some players "play through the injury" and thus potentially making the injury worse. They already do that because normally they don't want to come out anyway. That part has been going on forever.
 

KingWard

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Feb 15, 2022
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...I don't buy the argument that it would make some players "play through the injury" and thus potentially making the injury worse. They already do that because normally they don't want to come out anyway. That part has been going on forever.
I agree with this portion of your post completely. Take that out of consideration. As to the remedy, That's going to take some high-level crafting.
 

18IsTheMan

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Jan 19, 2022
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I think a fairly obvious one is a player going down with "injury" once either team is on the LOS.
 
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