The Thanksgiving matchup between the Houston Texans and the Detroit Lions produced quite a show — including what turns out to be a controversial move by the Texans that might just put them in a bit of trouble with the league.
A Texans player reportedly faked an injury in the fourth period in their 41-25 victory over Detroit in order to save themselves a timeout. Michael David Smith of NBC Sports details the rather unsportsmanlike incident:
With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Texans realized they had 12 players on the field on defense. Two players, A.J. Moore and Charles Omenihu, started to run off the field to avoid a penalty. Then Omenihu, realizing they were now going to be left shorthanded, just flopped onto the ground and pretended he was hurt. An official called an injury timeout and the Texans were able to get the right personnel on the field before the next play. The Texans weren’t penalized and didn’t lose a timeout.
Omenihu was then shown on the broadcast shortly after leaving the field. He was on the sidelines laughing — presumably about what he had just done. Clearly, he was not injured at all.
The Texans have yet to comment on the incident, but there's no denying that there was a clear violation of league rules here. The NFL will likely impose a stern penalty on Houston here. The fake injury was obvious, and if Houston somehow gets away with nothing more than a slap to the wrist here, this incident might just serve as an ugly precedent for something like this happening in the future..
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