Steve Sarkisian called out fake injuries more than a decade ago, holds integrity ‘in high regard’ with SEC memo
SEC issues league memo, outlines penalties for coaches who have players faking injuries
Fake injuries never sit well with opposing coaches, and the SEC is trying to get on top of this ethical quandary. Steve Sarkisian had a real problem with it more than a decade ago.
After Stanford beat Sarkisian’s Washington team in 2013, the coach took issue with how Cardinal players appeared to go down at calculated times in the Huskies’ 31-28 loss.
"Their defensive-line coach (Randy Hart) was telling them to sit down,” Sarkisian told Seattle radio station KJR in 2013.“I guess that’s how we play here at Stanford, so we’ll have to prepare for that next time. At some point, we'll get repaid for it. That never serves a purpose for us, and we’ll never do that.”
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Stanford coach David Shaw was outraged. “I must say that we don't fake injuries, we don't and we never will,” he said after learning of Sarkisian’s comments. Asked about it again, Sarkisian said, “We saw what we saw, we'll leave it at that.”
That moment sprang to mind this week as Sarkisian, now the coach at Texas, was asked about an SEC memo circulated last Friday with harsh language from commissioner Greg Sankey.
“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.”
Going forward, Sankey explained, a head coach will receive a public reprimand and $50,000 fine for a first offense, $100,000 for a second offense and a full one-game suspension for a third.
Fake injuries can be used to stop the clock on offense or defense, something Sankey told athletic directors and coaches is “not acceptable and is disrespectful to the game of football.”
Sarkisian, now the coach at Texas, didn’t express a strong opinion about it when asked by reporters on Monday.
“We haven't felt it as much as maybe some other teams have,” Sarkisian said. “Naturally, I think the integrity of the game of football is vitally important to hold in a high regard. But again, I'm probably not the best one to comment on it, because we haven't felt the effects of it.
“You know, it’s not something that we condone here. But again, I haven’t felt it as much from opponents against us. So it's kind of tough for me to call on that one.”
Any staff member found to be directing a player to fake an injury will face the same disciplinary actions, the SEC told schools in the memo. A player cited for faking an injury may also be subject to a public reprimand.
