re: NCAA approves rule changes to combat players faking injuries

Common sense but now “medical crew” will remain on sidelines.

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A player who is down prior to the ball being spotted doesn’t cost the team anything. This will specifically address the guys looking to the sideline then going down after getting a signal to do so.

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So now the coach will just give the signal for, "go down after the next play".

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Now what will Lane do?

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use his timeouts and then do it anyways. He usually does it on a first down or series of first downs to slow the game down as we all know....unless the opposing team needs a fg late and it will put them in fg range, he will keep doing it.

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Common sense but now “medical crew” will remain on sidelines.

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This.

Player gets signal to go down after ball is set. He falls down “writhing in pain”. Play is stopped. Clock is stopped. Medical crew remains on sideline while Player very slowly stands up and walks off the field. No timeouts or penalty assessed bc medical crew did not enter field.

Fake clock stoppage successful.

Player re-enters game one play later.

Repeat as often as necessary.

Lane will have the medical crew step on the field after every tackle. That way they will technically be on the field before the ball is spotted for the next play.

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So now the player will fake an injury BEFORE the ball is spotted

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Yeah, that was my first thought, as well. I approve of trying to do something, but it's always hard, if not impossible, to stop a cheater from cheating.

Only after the ball has been spotted by the ref. Not if something happens during the course of a play.

They will just flop prior to the ball being placed. This rule is stupid.

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if medical personnel enter the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew

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Fake the injury sooner?

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Yeah, this wont fix anything. They either wont send the Medical crew out for these fake injuries, or they will get the “signal” in a little faster so that they lay down before the ball is spotted!

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Yeah I don’t really get it either. Reading the rule book, as far as I understand injury timeouts are decided by the officials (not the medical staff). There’s nothing that says the medical staff has to enter the field for an injury. It does say the player must be treated/evaluated before returning to the game, but I haven’t seen anything that says the evaluation has to happen on the field.

So if a player is faking an injury they can just go down, wait for the official to declare an injury timeout, roll around on the ground for a second, then take their sweet time gingerly limping to the sideline.. without being penalized.

Meanwhile a player who is actually injured goes down and either has to walk off the field with an injury before being evaluated, OR the medical staff comes out and the team is penalized.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but at face value it appears this will penalize actual injuries while doing nothing for fake injuries. I guess the logic is that injured players tend to be down before the ball is spotted but it’s odd to base it on the medical team entering the field instead of basing it on a player going down. And sometimes officials spot the ball pretty damn quickly during late game situations.