A win against the New York Giants was not enough for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. While his team has started off the year with a much needed tally in the win column, he still had to go and stir up some drama. While the Cowboys ran a stretch of up-tempo plays, the Giants fell to injuries in back-to-back plays, something Jones says was all faked.
On back-to-back players, the Giants lost two defenders. Linebacker Dan Connor went down and the Cullen Jenkins went down with an apparent shoulder injury. While the television went to commercial break each time, head coach Jason Garrett was sharing his concerns with officials.
"I thought us experts on football were the only ones who could see that," Jones said, via ESPNDallas.com. "No, it was so obvious it was funny. It wasn't humorous because we really wanted the advantage and knew we could get it if we could get the ball snapped."
The Giants did not receive any penalties for the two injuries. Connors did not return for the remainder of the game while Jenkins returned after sitting out one play. In a press conference on Monday, Tom Coughlin defended the incident. He noted that both players were in fact injured and the team did not orchestrate the situation.
The NFL has taken a look at the replays to determine whether Jones' accusations held any truth. The league wanted to see whether or not the Giants were deliberately trying to slow down the offense of the Cowboys. ESPN's Ed Werder reports the league found no evidence and will not punish the team.
The accusations come after the NFL sent out a memo to all teams warning them to not fake injuries. Urlacher made comments saying the Chicago Bears used to do that move all the time in order to slow their opponents down and throw them off a little. The linebacker noted the coach would signal for a "dive guy" to get "hurt" on the following play. It was used in an effort for the offense to lose steam and was a tactic that was not coached but certainly part of the game plan.
NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino informed teams that faking injuries could result in unsportsmanlike penalties and discipline after the game.
"We have instructed all officials to be on the alert for violations of this rule," Blandino wrote in the memo, via ESPN.com. "Further, if it is determined by video review or other means available to the League office that defensive players are engaging in such practices, such players and their coaches may be subject to disciplinary action."
