Then And Now

[Sobriquet]

I recently read that back in the 1950’s there were times when a team, as a matter of game strategy, would have a player fake an injury. The player would fall down and wince, maybe even let out a few screams, and generally act like he was really hurting. The purpose of course was to have the officials stop the clock in situations where the team had no other way to do it.

I don’t know how widespread the practice was, but apparently it wasn’t all that uncommon. In fact Notre Dame employed the technique often enough that some pundits dubbed them “The Fainting Irish.â€

Interestingly it seems that back then this was not a violation of the rules and the officials routinely granted the time out even when it was quite obvious that the whole thing was a sham. And even when this ruse had the potential, often successful, to change the outcome of the game.

So I’m curious. What is the modern day situation? Does this kind of thing happen today, albeit in a less blatantly obvious way?

[rollinac]

That particular scenario can't as injuries and penalties now result in a 10 second run-off late in the game.