Unless the play is unchallengeable or something like that. Something that requires a ref’s explanation. That’s the only case where I think you should be able to pick that flag up.

I agree completely. At least it came back to bite Harbaugh in the last 3 minutes of the game.

Same as a faked injury. You cannot measure how injured a guy really is, so you can never “prove” it.

This is more of a gift from the refs, who SHOULD enforce it—maybe harbaugh didn;t intend to get a freebie, but he did. I guess you blame the refs.

(Analogy: I drive fast. If I see a cop and speed by him, I accept the potential outcome of getting nailed. if I don’t, the burden is on the cop who let me slide. I guess in this way, it’s not really Harbaugh’s blame, once the refs let him slide. In the same way I don;t pull myself over, walk back to the cop and say “okay, okay, write the ticket….” we wouldn;t expect Harbaugh to demand a replay he knows was futile.)

Still, it’s a cheat to throw the red flag and then pick it back up. That’s why some coaches leave it with an assistant, to keep them from throwing it in the heat of the moment. I think Belichick had it in a cooler and had to have somebody fetch it for him recently.

That play was puzzling at best. Throwing the flag is tantamount to calling a timeout – regardless of whether the flag is picked up, the team still has time to regroup for the next play (perhaps even substitute players?). When a flag is thrown, the timeout should be charged immediately, THEN the play reviewed. If the play is reversed, give the time out back. If the coach decides to pick up the flag and not challenge, the timeout is still charged. It’s a subtle difference, but perhaps enough to make coaches hesitate before throwing it.

Ok, who has Goodell’s number?

When are you allowed to pick up the challenge flag? I can’t find anything about it online. And why the hell doesn’t the NFL put the full rulebook online?

Did the refs actually talk Harbaugh out of a challenge? That sounds utterly insane. Since when is it the refs’ job to protect a coach from his own mistakes?

The problem with the Fake Injury rule is it’s not harsh enough. A player sitting out 1 play is nothing. “20 seconds later… all healed, it’s a miracle, thanks, back in”. In many situations the player that conveniently wants out, like a LB switching with a Nickel or vice versa, is the player that goes down and comes back in whenever. If exploited it can pose a serious unfair threat to No-Huddle Offenses and something the NFL needs to focus on.

The Solution: If a player has to stop play for an “injury” (real or fake) they should have to sit out the Series/Change of Possession. If they really are injured, they get a few minutes to be looked at, shake it off, and then go back in on the next series (seems fair). A player would either REALLY want to sub out in that situation to risk sitting out for awhile OR actually be injured, which is the purpose of the rule. This would greatly discourage players from “faking” injuries especially late in the game (see Wilfork injury on Colts/Pats Goal Line Stand) unless they were a seldom used player to begin with.

I agree, you can’t really know if a guy is actually injured (unless you can prove the players are being “Coached to go down”) so the only way to discourage it is to make a team think twice about doing it and being down a Starter or Rotation player for a whole series would get the message across.

Harbaugh got his due when he was forced into the Double Timeout, which was a game-changer. Thankfully, the refs didn’t let him off the hook which basically bought the Colts an entire Play Clock’s worth of seconds. Singletary didn’t even get more than a brief mention, ironically by a San Fran blogger. Either way… Colts won both.

It IS a penalty to do what Harbaugh did. The COlts got hosed, as Harbaugh would have been unable to challenge on of the second half fumbles otherwise…

http://www.examiner.com/x-4450-Indianapolis-Colts-Examiner~y2009m11d24-Media-and-team-in-parallel-worlds-Indianapolis-Colts-President-Bill-Polian-says

quoting polian

‘What happens if a coach throws the flag either entirely in error or because he wants to slow the game down and wants to give his defense a rest and wants to substitute people?’ The answer was, ‘He can not do that. He can’t pick the flag up and decide he doesn’t want to challenge. He either must accept the challenge and the penalty that goes with it if he’s wrong or be penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.’ Now, they might – they might – in what they consider a nonegregious situation – and this is not in the rulebook – they might penalize five yards for delay of game, maybe. But there has to be some penalty for erroneously throwing the flag and then saying, ‘No, I don’t want the challenge.’ That was not the case Sunday and it almost ended up being a disaster. If you remember, they got a third challenge because they got the first two right. The third challenge they used was on the fumble out of bounds where we actually recovered the ball. So, that could have changed the whole complexion of the game because they were allowed to pick that flag up. I spoke to the league office about it. They’re well aware of the situation. But there’s no possible way they should have been allowed to do that."