Rams File Complaint About Deon Grant's Bad Acting Job, League Threatens Punishment for Faking Injuries

If you missed it on Monday Night, the Rams were running a no-huddle offense and moving down the field when, as they were approaching the line to run another play after a gain inside the 10, the Giants defense suffered a rash of injuries. Safety Deon Grant submitted his audition tape for the next Michael Bay film, hitting the turf after being struck with an invisible bullet several seconds after the play had ended.

Now comes news that the Rams are submitting a complaint about the tactic. Faking of injuries happens all the time, it’s just that we usually give the benefit of the doubt to injuries. This one was just so over the top and completely unbelievable.  The league has now threatened to issue fines and suspensions for faking injury.

The problem is that often it’s difficult to tell when someone is injured, and we don’t want to discourage actual treatment. Smart teams use this to their advantage, and make the injuries believable. If a player stays on the turf immediately after the play ends with an alleged cramp, no one can prove otherwise. Then there is what the Giants did.

Everyone speeds. Not everyone passes the police car traveling in the same direction with a beer can hanging out the window in one hand. We like our cheaters to be crafty, not incompetent. If the Giants get fined, it’s because they did it so cartoonishly. It doesn’t mean the league should be cracking down in all but the most obvious cases. Remember the Sal Alosi incident? The Jets, I’m sure, weren’t the only team that tried to push the rules and impede gunners along the sidelines, they just took it further and made it obvious when Alosi tripped the gunner. Just because others are doing it doesn’t mean you don’t punish the ones that fail at it so spectacularly and publicly.

Grant is the fall guy here. It is pretty clear to me that they Giants players got a code red order from the bench, as they are looking that way for the next call, when Jacquian Williams makes a rookie mistake and crosses his signals, also hitting the turf at the same time, then immediately recovering and bouncing up when he notices Grant is down.

The question is who ordered that code red? My guess is that Tom Coughlin probably has neither the time nor the inclination to explain himself to Roger Goodell.

[photo via Getty]