When Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell was caught on ESPN’s cameras instructing his tight end to go down, creating a timeout situation for the Vikings, it sparked the inevitable conspiracy and controversy frenzy.
T.J. Hockenson, the standout offensive player for the Vikings in the absence of Justin Jefferson, limped off the field after a play in the second quarter against the San Francisco 49ers. In full view, O’Connell shouted at Hockenson to “go down.”
The Vikings had just gained a significant 30 yards, bringing them to the 49ers’ 2-yard line. With Hockenson being one of their most effective red-zone threats, it was crucial to keep him on the field during first-and-goal. If the Vikings were attempting to cheat in that moment (which seemed pointless since they didn’t need to stop the clock), they would have instructed a lesser player to feign an injury and would not have been screaming at Hockenson from the sideline.
It’s not unusual for a football coach on the sidelines to instruct a player to go down if they are slow to exit the field. This allows trainers to attend to the injured player and provides the team with a breather to make substitutions. Additionally, the injured player must sit out at least one play during a stoppage. While some may consider it poor sportsmanship to tell a player to go down instead of letting them attempt to hobble off the field after an injury, it is a commonly accepted practice and not considered cheating.
However, when Hockenson went down again in the second half, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman couldn’t resist making jokes.
Hockenson goes down again in the 3rd quarter.
“He wasn’t told to get down again, was he?” – Troy Aikman
“He was not…this feels a little more legit.” – Joe Buck 😅 pic.twitter.com/F0DtglMVJV
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2023
While it defies logic to believe that the Vikings would choose that moment to cheat and orchestrate a fake injury, conspiracy theories tend to be more intriguing. As anticipated, social media exploded with speculation. That is the extent of it, until the next trivial matter blown out of proportion and transformed into a controversy. At least this time, it had nothing to do with the NFL rigging games because of Taylor Swift.
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