SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has seen enough. In a memo Friday to league athletic directors and head football coaches, he detailed the sanctions if players continue to fake injuries in games.
“As plainly as it can be stated: Stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create timeouts,” Sankey wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.
He ended the memo by writing: “Play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense.”
Increasingly, coaches have accused opposing teams and coaches of faking injuries to disrupt the rhythm and flow of offenses, especially those that are up-tempo and rarely huddle.
Per the memo, head coaches receive a public reprimand and a $50,000 fine for a first offense; another reprimand and a $100,000 fine for a second offense; and an additional reprirmand and a suspension for his program’s next game for a third offense.
Any staff member found to be involved in signaling or directing a player to feign an injury will face the same measures, including financial penalties and a suspension. A player cited for feigning an injury also may be subject to a public reprimand.
Each play where a fake injury might have occurred must be submitted to the SEC for review. Steve Shaw, the national coordinator of football officiating, will determine what constitutes a fake injury. According to Sankey’s memo, those guidelines will range from Shaw determining that a feigned injury has occurred, that it is more likely than not that a feigned injury has occurred, that a player attempted to feign an injury or any other general statement from Shaw establishing the probability of a feigned injury.
Sankey wrote that creating injury timeouts, on offense or defense, is “not acceptable and is disrespectful to the game of football.”
