Faking injuries is a part of football. Most teams would never admit it, but the concept of a player going down and grabbing his leg to slow an opponent’s up-tempo attack is nothing new. Now that he has retired, Chicago Bears legend Brian Urlacher feels that he can safely throw his former team under the bus.
While working as an analyst on Fox Sports 1 on Tuesday, Urlacher said the Bears had a fairly detailed system when it came to faking injuries.
“We had a guy who was the designated dive guy,” he explained, per Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Urlacher also said that a Bears coach would make a swimmer’s diving motion with his arms on the sideline to signal that the player should go down. He said they pulled the stunt on long drives when defenders were fatigued, but would not name the coach who gave the signal.
“It wasn’t coached, but it was part of our game plan,” Urlacher said.
If it wasn’t coached, I don’t understand how a coach would be the one sending in the signal. Maybe he’s just saying it didn’t come directly from the head coach?
In any event, the topic has been a popular one this week after a Georgia linebacker blatantly faked an injury against Clemson when it appeared he received a signal from the sidelines. Cal coach Sonny Dykes was also livid when Northwestern slowed down his team’s offensive attack by getting “injured” on almost every play on Saturday night.
Since you never know when a player is actually injured and player safety must always be emphasized, there is really no way to stop the acting. As for the Bears, they can thank Urlacher when viewers keep a closer eye on their sideline during no-huddle attacks this season.
