OT:Gruden admits injury report shenanigans - New England Patriots Forums

SVN · 12-10-2007, 11:55 AM

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

funny ..everyone does it but its only BB who gets called out all the time

Quote:

GRUDEN ADMITS TO INJURY REPORT SHENANIGANS

Bucs coach Jon Gruden is the latest NFL coach to acknowledge that he has been less-than-truthful in his handling of the official injury report.

Quarterback Jeff Garcia suffered a back injury last month. He has since been listed as questionable, which suggests a 50-50 chance that he would play. But after the Bucs' loss to Houston on Sunday, Gruden said that he never intended to let Garcia play in either of the two games he has missed since suffering the injury.

As a result, then, Garcia should have been listed as "out" for both games.

But to do so would have allowed Tampa's opponents to spend no time preparing to play against Garcia, and to devote more time to defending against Luke McCown.

The broader issue, from the perspective of the NFL, is that anyone who knew about Gruden's plan would have been in a position to confidently wager money on the Texans to beat the Bucs on Sunday, as the Texans did.

It remains to be seen whether the league does anything about this. Sooner or later, however, the league needs to take meaningful action in order to ensure that these abuses don't continue to happen.

NovaScotiaPatsFan · 12-10-2007, 01:07 PM

I do think the injury report is a joke. But the way that that's worded struck me kind of strange, it says:

"Gruden said that he never intended to let Garcia play in either of the two games he has missed since suffering the injury."

That doesn't say Garcia couldn't go, it just said that Gruden wouldn't have let him. Maybe it's one of those "if it were a playoff game he'd play" type deals. So perhaps physically he was 50/50 but Gruden didn't want to risk it and hold him for the playoffs.

Pass_The_Rum · 12-10-2007, 01:20 PM

For what it's worth, Garcia doesn't look like he's unable to play when they show him, so I think the "if it were a big game" thing is true. On the other hand, Bucs-Saints was a big game...

ahh well, the injury report system is iffy. Didn't Belichick say something about not being a doctor, or whatever? That goes for the other coaches, too.

JoePats · 12-10-2007, 01:33 PM

As for the wagering thing, people could have knowledge to wager money on the counterfeit spread against the Saints too, and Tampa won.

***PatsRI*** · 12-10-2007, 02:25 PM

Does this not give TB a "competetive advantage" over their opposing teams? If so then I would expect the Commish to come down hard on them since there have been warnings and dare I say maybe a memo on this. Oh wait this one will be excused by the "everyone does it" reasoning, just like signal stealing....oh wait someone was punished for the signal stealing.