Dan Mullen calls for players to be fined over fake injuries in NIL era

Amid a slew of claims about fake injuries, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memo to teams instituting penalties and potential suspensions if they keep occurring. ESPN analyst Dan Mullen saw another solution, though, in the NIL era: potentially fining players.

Mullen pointed out the need to do something about feigning injuries, which has drawn plenty of attention in the SEC this season. Per Sankey’s memo, coaches would receive public reprimands and fines on the first two occurrences, and the third would result in a suspension.

While Mullen noted the decision to fine coaches, he wondered if fining players could also be a solution because they can make money through NIL. Since they’re the ones who are faking the injuries, he wondered if they should perhaps receive a penalty of some sort.

“It’s a silly part of our game, and I think it does need to be addressed,” Mullen said Friday night on College Football Countdown. We kind of joke about it and make fun of it every single week, but it is a bad look on the game. However, the scary part about all of this is the injury side of things. If you’re a coach, you certainly are never allowed to try to influence doctors or talk about that with the health of players.

“I think the coaches’ fine is interesting. I think the league should fine the players. They’re getting paid now. They have their NIL contracts, they have their money. If they’re the ones that are gonna go down – like, if the coach says … take a dive and you know you’re gonna get fined if you fake an injury, are you gonna stay on your feet?”

Mullen’s idea drew some pushback from fellow analyst Joey Galloway, though. He pointed out the coaches are the ones telling players to go to the ground, which is why they should receive the punishment.

But Galloway also offered another idea. He suggested teams lose a timeout if a player feigns an injury and argued in-game penalties would be more effective.

“You went too far,” Galloway told Dan Mullen. “You went too far with that because the coach is the one making the call. The player just isn’t, on his own, deciding it’s time to go down. What they need to do is take a timeout. They need to force these teams to take a timeout because you fine and reprimand a coach after the game, that doesn’t affect the outcome of the game. In-game, these guys lay down, they stop the game, they get a break, they get to change things. So they should be charged a timeout.

“If you charge them a timeout, now, all of a sudden, they’re being penalized in-game. So if you penalize us in-game, then all of a sudden, we’ve got to make a change. A fine? Dan, you’d have wrote that check 1,000 times, no big deal. $100,000, here you go, take it. I’m gonna get my free timeout.”

Dan Mullen acknowledged the SEC had to take some sort of action against faking injuries, especially after multiple instances this year. But when it comes to talking about injuries, though, he pointed out the need to be careful based on his time on the sidelines.

“I do think there was something that had to be done, but I also think it’s a very fine line when you’re dealing with injuries of players,” Mullen said. “We see it, but I’ve been on that side that there’s a lot of people. You have to be very, very cautious when you’re talking about injuries and health of young men. … I like Joey’s idea. Charge them a timeout.”