In recent years college football has been a trend setter for the game as it has impacted how NFL teams run their offenses and how they select their coaches. But this past season there is one new facet which is getting adopted by more and more teams that opposing coaches are not too fond of.
Players faking injuries for timeouts.
There have been multiple examples throughout the season of players taking dives on the field when they are clearly not injured.
Big Kat Bryant “injury.” #AuburnVsLSU pic.twitter.com/Y5nniXOG62
— Creg Stephenson the First (@CregStephenson) October 26, 2019
During his weekly radio show Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked about the trend to which he gave a lengthy answer on the topic.
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Below is his full response:
“There’s two parts of this. First of all when a player says he’s injured. It’s very difficult for anybody to dispute that, aight, and you put the officials in a really really difficult circumstance, even if a guy — like I saw a guy do it the other. He walked I mean like 20 yards across the field and then just went down, and they came out and did the trainer thing and all that and he went out of the game and they slowed the game down. But even at that, if that player says he’s injured, you cannot dispute the fact that he is or isn’t injured. Now that’s one part.
“So, if a player goes down, I’m never going to dispute whether he’s injured or not injured. Is it in the spirit of the game? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s good for the game to fake an injury if that’s in fact what somebody is doing or somebody is being told to do by a coach to slow the game down to try and create and advantage or disadvantage. I know we want to win games, but we still have a responsibility and obligation to teach values. How you do this, how do you play, how do you compete with sportsmanship, with class, with respect for the other players and the rule, the rules of the game. The game was intended to be played this way.
“I’m just the opposite, aight. I get mad at our players when they lay on the field. I tell our players, ‘if you lay on the field, you’re telling the other guy he’s kicking your ass, that’s what you’re telling the other guy. If you’re just laying out there on the field, that’s what you’re telling the other guy, aight. So, is that what you’re trying to do?’ I mean you’re laying on the field, the guy’s standing right there that you’re playing against and you’re telling them you won, you’re wearing me out,’ aight. Now you jump up and run off the field and your ready to go back in in two plays. I mean how really hurt were you? I mean, I’m just the opposite of all that.
“Now, I don’t ever question when a player’s hurt and I don’t tell them, ‘I expect you to get up and run off the field no matter what.’ Even though when I played, I broke my ankle and my leg and ran off the field because our coach said, ‘You can’t lay on the field. You can’t let the other team know that they’re beating you. You can’t tell them that.’ So, I got up and ran off the field. Was that dumb or what? It was dumb. But I do think there’s a psychological component to all of that you actually have to weight — is this worth doing to let the other team know that what they’re doing is actually wearing them out? So, that’s why we don’t do it.
“Now, I do tell our guys, which is different, is if they’re going fast and you are hurt, don’t try to get off the field, aight, because we can’t substitute for you if they’re going fast. And if they didn’t sub, there’s no rule to protect us from all that. In other words, the guy’s hopping off the field and we’ve got to put somebody in for him and he doesn’t get off the field, we’re getting a flag for 12 guys unless they sub. And if they didn’t sub, then you’re out of luck. So, if a guy does get hurt now, you have to tell them, ‘Don’t get off the field because you’re going to be in trouble.’
“I don’t know. We create tremendous advantages for ourselves by going fast sometimes, so there’s advantage in that, no question, aight. But I do wonder sometimes if it’s in the best interest of the players that you let them go fast because guys get tired. When they get tired, they’re more apt to get injured, and when you play more plays, you’re more apt to get injured. So, where some of these fast-ball teams run 90 plays in a game — I mean, it’s average to go about 65, aight. So, now you’re asking a player to play 25 more plays than what he usually does. I mean, what’s the cause and effect of that in terms of the player’s best interest and player safety?”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
