In fact, that's exactly what U.S. women's soccer goalie Briana Scurry said two years ago when her team won the World Cup after she had blocked a penalty kick by deliberately jumping off the line too early. As she'd hoped, the ref didn't make the call. Getting away with whatever you can is a crucial tenet of gamesmanship. So it's OK to fake fouls to disqualify opponents, or injuries to get another timeout. In college football, coaches once bought gloves the color of opponents' uniforms to conceal holding, until the NCAA banned the practice.
Many coaches encourage athletes to get away with as much grabbing, pulling and holding as they can.
Last year, I was questioning a highly respected WNBA player about cheating before a large audience. She told of a time a teammate had been fouled but, because the ref wasn't very vigilant, she had gone to the free-throw line instead. She was thunderstruck when the audience overwhelmingly said it was. After thinking about it, she agreed it had been cheating and apologized. In sports, a lot of good people are doing bad things because they don't know any better.