Aaside from all of FIFA’s fouls off the field — the bribery, the slave labor, the deaths of migrant workers in Qatar — this year’s World Cup has been surprising for its relative lack of fake injuries. At least, that’s been my impression.
Technically, faking a foul or injury in soccer is a yellow card offense. But until very recently, the rule against feigning injuries was almost never enforced.
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You could perhaps credit the introduction of instant replay to soccer or a crackdown by the referees or the professional leagues. Or perhaps it just has something to do with Italy not making the World Cup this year.
But soccer players are not the only footballers to fake injuries. In fact, there was a huge controversy last week and half a million dollars in fines levied over Cameron Jordan of the New Orleans Saints supposedly faking an injury on Monday night football.
It is not uncommon for football players — yes, that’s right, American football players — to claim dubious injuries. But their motives are different. While soccer players are usually trying to get the referees to call penalty kicks or waste time when their teams are in the lead, NFL players fake injuries in order to stop the clock and slow down a driving offense. This has been a very serious problem ever since the Buffalo Bills popularized the hurry-up offense in the early 1990s. (It has since become more fashionable to call it the up-tempo offense.) Today, most teams use such offense at least part of the game, even when they are not under time pressure. So when your defense is on its back foot, struggling just to get lined up, let alone stop a well-trained offense in the middle of its one-minute drill, a well-timed injury can provide some needed relief.
I’m not saying that Jordan’s injury was not real — the Saints claim they can prove he had “an acute midfoot sprain in his left foot.” They might even be telling the truth. I’m just saying that doubtful injuries are a lot more common in the NFL than you’d expect.
And it’s not immediately obvious what to do to fix this problem, either. Sure, you can fine and penalize players for delaying the game, but it is very difficult to judge whether someone’s injury is real. I doubt that Jordan’s fine will survive on appeal. It raises the broader issue of how you can make such a fine stick and how hard you want to press the issue, potentially at the risk of incentivizing players to keep going on real sprained ankles or broken toes.
In the meantime, just know that soccer isn’t the only sport where people take dives.
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