A Last Word (for now) on Flopping

Adam Jude has an informative article on the epidemic of injury-faking that has plagued Oregon opponents this year. He interviews the league office and supervisor of officials, who conclude pretty emphatically there's nothing referees can do about it during a game. They have to protect injured players, particularly because a genuine injury treated as a fake one could be potentially disastrous.

Especially galling about Cal's use of the strategy is that they employed a designated flopper, a player outside the two-deep to take the dive. Having the player fall on the ball was the topper.

Flopping goes well beyond gamesmanship into the area of ethics and integrity. While penalties against it may not be enforceable, it's bad for the game, countering a very entertaining style of offense with a shameful, cowardly and ugly strategy.

The league office should review the Tipoti film, a snippet that's grown as infamous as the Zapruder film, and Jeff Tedford should be fined. It's a shoddy, shameful moment to view in a football game. It has no place in competition.

But ultimately the cheating team punishes itself. The message the coach has to send to his players, putting such a strategy in place, damages the heart of that team in a profound way. Football is a game of pride and courage. You can't instill these qualities when you wasting valuable practice time to teach your players to lie down like dogs.