Dustin Brown vs Detroit Red Wings 3-13-12

The Elvis of diving, Dustin Brown.  Here, he interrupts a pass attempt by Henrik Zetterberg and, though he looks like he'll get a breakaway, instead engages Zetterberg and draws and interference penalty.

The Mission

You know who I'm talking about: that guy you can't stand that's always flopping around, that woman who bull rushes everyone but the minute somebody gets her back she acts like she got blasted by a half-stick of dynamite...the divers, people.  Nobody likes them, few admit to be them, but here's the chance to lay it bare for all to see.  The purpose of Dive Blog is to document as many dives as possible, in video form, and develop some data on diving frequency and (via vote) the "severity" of the dive.  First, the submissions process...

...this kind of collection is much better done by the population at large by sending a video (or a gif) of the dive to the blog email (diveblg2012@gmail.com).  The leagues I'm interested in are:

- For hockey: NHL

- For soccer: MLS, La Liga, Barclay's Premier League, German Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A

- For baseball: MLB

- For football: NFL, CFL

- For basketball: NBA

Be sure to provide both teams and the date at minimum; I'd like to document these as well as possible.  My primary interest was the NHL, but upon second thought I've decided this Wall of Shame needn't be so selective.  Then, to the voting process...

When I say "severity", I'm thinking in regards to the severity of the embellishment.  This means determining the difference between the actual physical action done to the person (whether some or none at all) and the physical reaction of the guilty party.  A low score on the scale will be minimal embellishment; a high score will be maximal embellishment.  So, for the first dive, let us observe the New York Islanders' Steve Staios (he of over 1,000 NHL games, the crafty minx) drawing a slashing penalty off Stephen Weiss of the Florida Panthers in a March 25th, 2012 game:

Boy, Steve, that looked like it hurt.  

Eventually, I'll have compiled the worst dives, and the worst offenders, and an approximation of the frequency of dives among many other statistics.  For now, though, this will function as a veritable Wall of Shame, with nowhere to hide.