Fake an Injury During a Down
 

PAT A lines up with a bunch formation of receivers out to the right. Immediately with the snap one of those receivers falls to ground screaming in pain, everyone kind of stops and stairs at him as the QB throws the ball to the TE on the left side for a 2 point. The receiver then gets up cheering and chest bumping over to the sideline.

I ruled it illegal with the philosophy that "if it looks wrong, it probably is" Trying to find a rule to support the decision.

IP rule says a player lying on the ground at or before the snap, not after the snap.

If there is ANY explaining necessary, it should be by the coach who allowed such a bonehead effort.

Kill the play! You're sure the player was dying and that's more important than a football play.

Oh! He was faking? then we have an inadvertent whistle and an USC foul on the player.

After the flag the kid said, "I knew it was illegal but coach told me to do it."

The provisions re unsportsmanlike conduct in all the major codes are open-ended, not exhaustive. I don't think many people would have a problem finding the feigning of injury during play to be unsportsmanlike. The only question is whether you'd stop play because it looks like a dangerous situation, and that would depend on how convincing the act was.

Well, I think I've just discovered the first situation where I'd have a UNS flag for an injured player.

Congrats, Reffing Rev.

Looks like we've also found a reason to eject a coach for an "injured player". This is why the popularity of the "wrong ball" play is a bad thing. Coaches stop teaching mechanics, teamwork and sportsmanship, and teach deceit, cheating and taking falls.
Stop that in its tracks. Let the flag fly and let the coach take a hike. I'll write that ejection report 8 days a week.

After the snap, can a fake injury make the defense think the snap is not imminent?

Of course not. What's your point?

Are you suggesting this should be legal deception?

He's parsing the rule guys. Sometimes we have to do that. He has a point.

Really? This type of "deception" is a Pandora's Box that NOBODY should EVER consider opening or weasel wording (parsing).

If so, I wish he'd explain it.

I agree with his point.

Seriously... how many times have we seen an ACTUAL injury happen during play that causes someone to scream out. Have we EVER seen the rest of the players quit playing?

I'm not positive we have grounds for a penalty here.

It depends on how you envision it... If someone goes down with an injury while obviously participating in the play (running, tackling, throwing) then nobody's going to stop playing and it's not a foul. And the trainer's probably going to be making an appearance on the field after the play ends.

But, as Reffing Rev described it, that doesn't seem to be the case, especially when the "injured" player gets up and starts celebrating and chest-bumping without being attended to by medical personnel.

Moral of the story, kids... if you're going to fake an injury to help your team score a touchdown or two-point conversion, you need to at least fake the injury long enough to be attended to by the trainer after the play ends.