Greg Sankey throws Lane Kiffin under the bus with hard-line stance on fake injuries

Watch out Lane Kiffin, the SEC is cracking down on your little trick. Conference commissioner Greg Sankey sent out a memo to all SEC teams about feigning, or faking, injuries during games, and it's clear exactly which team he has in mind here. This controversy has slowly come to a boil in recent weeks, with fan bases noticing that Ole Miss likes to take advantage of stoppages in play through “injured” players. It became particularly prevalent during the Rebels’ 27-3 win at South Carolina, as they racked up 11 injury stoppages throughout the game.

Sankey is effectively putting his foot down, and hopefully this brings an end to teams finding ways to finesse breaks/extra timeouts during a game. In the release, Sankey broke down punishments for teams that continuously violate league rules. On the first offense, coaches will receive a public reprimand with a $50,000 fine attached to it. Same goes for a second offense, except the fine increases to $100,000. 

On the third offense, the coach will receive a one-game suspension for the following game. 

Greg Sankey throws Lane Kiffin under the bus with hard-line stance on fake injuries

After Sankey spelled out exactly how he plans to address faking injuries during games, he had one last line to let Kiffin know: He’s watching him.

“Play football and stop the feigned injury nonsense,” Sankey wrote at the end of the release. 

I guess it’s pretty clear who he’s talking to. And he makes a great point: The fake injury gimmick is getting out of hand, much like flopping has in soccer and the NBA. Something needs to be done to punish teams enough to force a change in behavior. Some of the fake injury attempts have just been plain bad. 

Players are clearly not injured, and it’s almost a slap in the face to the integrity of the game. It’s a particularly bad look because players actually do get hurt playing a violent game. And if players are flopping on the ground because their coach tells them to and they're not really hurt, it’s a waste of resources running training staff out there — not to mention it makes a mockery of players who really are injured but will now draw the ire of opposing fans anyway.

Like Sankey said, if you want a timeout, use one. Play within the rules of the game. Don’t find loopholes. And now that Sankey is on to Kiffin’s antics, it’s going to start costing him if he continues to find ways to outsmart the system.