Don't take a dive

   I'm really not a fan of cheating.  In football (soccer) there has been a trend to "help" the referees call fouls.  The same is true in American football, basketball, hockey, even baseball, where players pretend to get hit or hurt so that the referee or umpire or official penalizes the other team.
   It's disgusting.  It's weak.  It's pathetic.  It's not manly.  That's how I feel about it.  Play to win.  Play fair.  Don't cheat.  Have some integrity.  Win or lose, it IS how you play the game, in my opinion.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/roy-keane-nicky-butt-paul-scholes-tried-kick-081846030--sow.html

Roy Keane, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes tried to kick the diving out of Cristiano Ronaldo

 

Brooks Peck October 1, 2013 4:18 AMDirty Tackle

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(Getty)

Cristiano Ronaldo developed a reputation for diving early in his career, but several of his old Manchester United teammates tried to kick the simulation out of him in training. This is according to Phil Neville, who was interviewed as part of an ITV documentary on Ronaldo.

From ITV:

"He dived a lot," Neville told ITV reporter Gabriel Clarke. "He tried to buy fouls and he came in for a lot of criticism. The boys [at Man Utd] were hard on him for his diving and it was putting us under pressure.
"I'd say the first 12 months there was a massive toughening up process. In training at the time you had [Roy] Keane, [Nicky] Butt, [Paul] Scholes, and every time he got the ball they kicked him and they kicked him – not just once, they kicked him every day, every week, all season."

This might explain that training ground tackle Cristiano used to welcome Gareth Bale to Real Madrid a few weeks ago. Perhaps he's in the process of doing the same thing for Bale, who was booked four times for simulation last season.