Modest Proposal: Fakers

The so-called hurry up offenses are becoming popular in football, speeding the game up to a more or less glacial pace. This puts some pressure on the really big, really fat guys needed to play defense - many defenses get "gassed" and appear to crumble. In response, defenses have started faking injuries. The wise men of football appear helpless to deal with the practice.

Faking still goes on. Even in cases when the intent seems obvious, officials are not in a position to decide whether an injury is real or staged. The league doesn't want them making that determination, especially with the renewed emphasis on player safety. The league cannot take a hard-line stance, other than to say on Page 19 of the rule book: "The Competition Committee deprecates feigning injuries, with subsequent withdrawal, to obtain a timeout without penalty. Coaches are urged to cooperate in discouraging this practice."

My proposal: just force players injured enough to stop play to sit out the rest of the game. This would have the added benefit of discouraging such travesties as Romo's absurd heroics in playing half a game with a broken rib and punctured lung.

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