I put this out on Twitter a week or so ago, and it now has an amazing 10 million views! It is very funny and makes me laugh every time. Also a great example of lateral thinking….
What do you think? Would you have fallen for it?
Richard Wiseman
Quirky mind stuff
This guy should win Magician of the Year because of his superb misdirection skills. He used complacency to the maximum and confused, befuddled and bemused both the spectators and the opposition. Brilliant!
I wonder how many Brits understood what just happened. The best way to understand would be to watch other American football videos to see what normally happens at the start of a play.
It looks like the scrum half has simply walked passed the props and scored a try.
There is no need to be condescending. Plenty of Brits know plenty about “American” football. Did you not notice the 80,000 who have been going to Wembley for the past 4 seasons? The NFL has been televised in the UK since the mid 80s.
Goodness me. Of course we understand. Not every Brit is a fan, but most of us are exposed to a large amount of North American culture from an early age.
I think it would be more true (but equally facile and prejudiced) to say that it is North Americans who lack knowledge of other cultures.
Of course, I didn’t say that.
For the record, me and my friends at school would often play touch football american-style with an NFL ball etc. I can only bear to watch highlights because it does… drag… on… for… so… long. The highlights can be so exciting and I love your draft system and salary caps. We could do with some of that in the Premier League.
And I have to say – what a genius play! Once only, mind, you couldn’t repeat it: the quarterback would be sacked very quickly (not british sacked, which means fired, but American sacked, ie bundled over by the biggest guys on the defending team)
Lol! I had no idea what was going on but I gather the norm is not to stroll casually away with the ball!
I like this one a lot better.
That was underhanded. I found the “wrong ball” less sportsmanlike.
Less sportsmanlike? Why? What’s the difference between the “wrong ball” ruse and the one Richard links to above?
That’s actually cheating in my book. The original one is just a guy walking instead of running – not his fault if nobody reacts to that. He never claimed not to be part of the game anymore, while the “wrong ball” guy tried to make exactly that false impression, actually taking some kind of a “time-out” which makes it seem fair not to attack him.
He most certainly is claiming not to be part of the game anymore. He’s using his body language to do so, and maybe language, too (we can’t hear what the players are saying in the clip). The players on the opposing team thought his actions were not part of the game, which is exactly the impression those actions were obviously intended to give.
So, again, what’s the difference?
Yeah, it’s different. Not much, but it is significant. In the “Wrong Ball” the player is overtly appealing for a suspension of play. It is natural and correct for the opposing team to wait until it has been sorted out. In the first clip the player is simply continuing play in an unorthodox and confusing manner. There is no evidence that he was appealing for suspension of play, it isn’t enough to simply say that he might have been doing so but we couldn’t hear. If he WAS calling for suspension then there would be no difference, but it seems unlikely.
I know it’s a different sport, but this is deliberately misleading to gain an advantage, but it’s also adding creativity to the game. Too clever for the linesman anyway!
That was great, along with the one Fluffy posted just above. I think I would actually watch more sports if these kinds of deceptive elements were common.
Yep. I would have fallen for it.
When does such a move become bad sportsmanship? I think the fluffy clip falls into that character, but the first one not. Not sure I could clearly demarcate though.
Mentalism made semi-useful.
Am I right in thinking that the “trick” is at 0:18? It’s hard to spot. Definitely should have recommended watching in full-screen mode. I don’t see any lateral thinking.
I would have fallen for it then cheered him for his clever move…..hilarious.
FeD – I imagine it’s almost impossible to spot the trick unless you’ve seen the conventional plays which would provide context.
The whole play is fascinating but OTOH you can only do this once.
I’d say the trick starts with the way the centre passes the ball to the quarterback and it continues from there till the obvious pantomime point where the QB legs it
Ok, speaking up for those UK folks who don’t get it – possibly might have been able to think about it if it weren’t for the infernal racket. I’m sure he was very clever somehow, but very happy to take your word for it!
Hate to be contrarian, but this is crap. These kids are 13 and 14, and they are being “outsmarted” by the opposing coach. There is plenty of room for misdirection in football, but over-competitive adults ruin the fun of sports for kids with this kind of foolishness.
He outsmarted their coach, who didn’t properly prepare them.
I really like this and other similar clever moments in sport. For the British/American debate, here are some equivalent moments in football
I’m not so sure about the example posted by ‘fluffy’ however. Deliberately trying to fool the opposition into thinking something is wrong seams a bit cheap. A fine line.
Also, an interesting point made by ‘murph’ above. As a result, I do feel a bit sorry for the other team. Maybe at this level, the winning mentality has been taken a bit too far?
“Deliberately trying to fool the opposition into thinking something is wrong”–isn’t that exactly what happens in BOTH clips? Why is one clever and the other cheap?
I accept your point Carl, the only thing I would say is that in the video posted by Richard, it is the team who concede the touchdown who interpret there being a problem. In the video posted by fluffy, the team who scores actively try to lie about there being a problem with the ball.
So in my mind, the team who conceded in the first video were not alert to the situation. The team who conceded in the second video, while again not being very alert, also wrongly trusted their opponents. As I said before, a fine line. Both videos can be viewed either way.
“ok lads, just act nonchalant and act as if nothings happening”
I am English, understand enough about American Football to see what is going on at the start of a play and I find it amusing. I should imagine that I would have been fooled by it if I had been drilled in to expecting aggressive starts to plays.
We used a play like this in basketball from time to time. On the inbounds after the ball was handed by the ref to the player throwing it in, another player on the court would walk up saying, “No, no let me throw it in.” Everyone would relax and the inbounder would pass it to the guy acting like he was wanting to throw it in for an easy layup.
It only works once.
This could never happen at the professional level, hopefully not even at the college level. Really shouldn’t happen at any level with proper coaching. Once the line is in position and the ball is on the ground, if the center moves the ball the defensive line should be surging for the quarterback. They shouldn’t be paying any attention to anything but the ball leaving the ground. Only works because they are young and inexperienced.
I would have fallen for it as a kid, and maybe even as an adult. It’s extremely rare to do this kind of thing. I’ve only seen it done once in my combined twenty five years of playing and coaching football. And that says a lot, as I’ve been an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach and a quarterback all that time.
This type of trick play is a little bit of a bogus play at the kid level, in my opinion. Did I find the video funny? Sure. But kids are not going to know the nuances of the sport at this level, so this is basically a coach beating the opposing kids by using something way beyond their understanding. It would be great at the college level though.
I still laughed when I saw it and hopefully there was nothing important about this game. Most coaches I know wouldn’t do something like this at a junior level.
Bottom line is, and what the kids need to learn is that unless a referee blows a whistle, that ball is live and if it is moved by the center, the defense should go after it immediately until a whistle is blown.
I’ve seen something sort of similar that happens at the professional level though. When you recover a fumble on the ground, if the other team doesn’t touch you, you can still get up and run. Sometimes the person making the recovery doesn’t realize this and just stands there. I’ve also seen someone recover a fumble and then casually stroll towards the end zone with no one realizing he was never touched and was not down.
I heard that the team that scored the touchdown in this clip got their butts kicked in the game, so it was probably nice to have a little bit of fun for them too.
This is terrorism. Do you see the parallels?
non-tipper.com this is a blog for anyone and everyone who works in the industry .where they get tipped for your hard work and effort but in this case its about cheap people who dont respect and dont tip you for all your hard work and have the money but dont tip you for all your hard work so please tell us who they are and where you and they are from and let everyone who they are and not work for them cheap none tipping people.
As a Brit who knows a fair amount about steroid-ball (given the lie to the old saw above), here’s one of the closest analogies I can think of from the pro version of the game. Devin Hester for the Bears versus the Giants in 2006. He catches a field goal attempt that falls short, and nonchalantly… What the heck, watch it for yourself…
I have done that exact move while playing capture the flag. It worked so well. Nobody even noticed till i got to the flag and made it almost all the way back to the border between the two sides. One of my finest moments.
I did that during capture the flag once. I just put on my hoodie and slowly walked backwards to the flag, grabbed it and ran.
Fantastic!
Great example of what hypnotists call a pattern interrupt. They opposing team are all geared up to expect one thing, something else happens, takes their brains a while to re-work what is going on by which time he is running!
The other example is just pure cheating! – The coach is calling for the ball, the guy with the ball is acting as if it is a time-out and then he runs- nothing clever there just plain cheating.
In the main example, posted by Richard, the only difference between a normal play and this one, is his attitude when he gets the ball. He doesn’t hold it up, or look like he calls for a time-out, he just walks forward with it in a different manner to which anyone else was expecting.
As for those that say it wouldn’t happen in a normal game – I would say that it certainly has potential to, probably more so, as those guys will have been through more games and therefore have a more ingrained pattern – break that pattern, cause confusion and away you go – in fact if he had shouted “Sleep” as he walked past he may even have banged a couple under during their confusion!
Of course it wouldn’t happen now (I would hope) as it has hopefully been shown around all the football teams just in case! And because, as others have said, they should just hit the guy with the ball and ask questions later! (in my very limited knowledge of the game)
Still very funny though!
Always play to the whistle, kids (as Tottenham found out recently)!
This was so fun to watch – such a reminder of what’s possible! It reminds me of the time when Jacoby Ellsbury, of the Red Sox (baseball in Boston), stole home from 3rd base while the pitcher had possession of the ball! He totally slipped under the radar. Makes everyone wake up for a moment or two! even if it is to say: “What was that?”
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This is just so beautiful. I actually got banned from playing Duck Duck Goose as a child for trying this strategy (and many others!) over and over again in elementary school. I have huge respect for fellow sneaky brats.