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Daily Madden: No Easy Way To Stop Fake Injuries In NFL

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - The growing popularity of fast-paced, no-huddle offenses in college and pro football games has apparently led to more faked injuries on defense to slow the action and substitute more players. "It's something that has to be watched," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew.

"Competitively it's something you don't want. But you know it's a pretty touchy situation because if someone goes down, you can't say get up and get off the field. You know, 'don't worry about him, he's just flopping...' There's a chance he could have a serious injury. So when a guy goes down, you, can't ignore it and you can't tell him he can't do it. So there's a fine line there."

Some have suggested a rule that forces an 'injured' player to miss more than one play. "That's a possibility," Madden said. "But if you do designate a guy (to fake an injury), you could just designate a guy who was going to miss (time) anyway... We can't allow that to get in the game."

The defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens are seven and a half point underdogs in their season-opener against the Denver Broncos. "I think that's wrong," Madden said. "I don't know that (the Ravens) really got the respect of a Super Bowl-winning team all year and all off-season."

Madden noted that while Baltimore did lose players, so did a lot of top teams. "It's kind of stupid to say this because they're Super Bowl champions, but I think they're a lot better than people give them credit for."

Daily Madden

Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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