American football and soccer are two wildly different sports. However, the two sports suddenly have something in common: players faking injuries to work the clock.
A “fake injury epidemic” has been rising in college football this season, most notably in the SEC
It’s become such an issue that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a memo Friday to athletic directors and head coaches detailing punishments if players continue to fake injuries during games.
“As plainly as it can be stated: Stop any and all activity related to faking injuries to create time-outs,” Sankey wrote in the memo obtained by ESPN. “Play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense.”
According to the memo, head coaches can be fined $50,000 for a first offense and potentially suspended over a third offense, if it can be shown that a player faked an injury.
During Saturday’s SEC Nation from Jacksonville before “The World’s Largest Cocktail Party” between the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, college football legend Tim Tebow shared a similar sentiment, using a comparison between college football and soccer to make his point.
“I think soccer is a great sport but we don’t want to turn football into soccer.” – Tim Tebow reacting to the fake injury epidemic pic.twitter.com/WDeakhinPt
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 2, 2024
“I’m a soccer fan. I love that we’re bringing teams here to Jacksonville. I think soccer is a great sport. But we don’t want to turn football into soccer,” said Tebow. “There is a difference. I don’t think that we should just be tapped and ‘Oh my gosh, I’m gonna go fall down.’ No, no, no. That works in another sport and it’s the biggest sport in the world. But we’re celebrating college football right now. Both are amazing. Let’s keep football as football and let’s not do that.”
That message is going to resonate with a lot of “football guys” for sure. However, despite his best efforts, it’s probably going to be seen as a shot across the bow by soccer fans. Certainly, faking injuries and flopping is a problem in soccer (as well as basketball) but it’s perhaps not quite as prevalent as Tebow makes it sound, which could annoy some.
Still, we can all agree that faking injuries is a lame strategy, no matter the sport.
