# American Football: Some kind of bluff pays off

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995 "2010-11-09T02:53:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KellyCriterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@KellyCriterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyCriterion)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995/1 "2010-11-09T02:53:25Z")

</div>

Here’s the vid:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0UIdI8khMkw/hqdefault.jpg "Driscoll Middle School Trick Play") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UIdI8khMkw)

I’m just wondering, why did this work? What did the opposing team _think_ was happening?

My American Football experience is limited to video game consoles.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995/2 "2010-11-09T03:09:21Z")

</div>

> **[question about football trick play (Driscoll Middle School)](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584761)**
>
> Some of you have probably already seen this college (American) football trick play by Driscoll Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas. Article (totalprosports.com) video (YouTube) Description: a player hands the ball to the quarterback, the...

Already a thread on this on.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995/3 "2010-11-09T03:11:09Z")

</div>

They probably thought a time-out had been called, or some other game interrupting event. The center didn’t snap the ball back, so what was expected didn’t happen. I’m not sure whether this would be legal at the college or professional level.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-some-kind-of-bluff-pays-off/559995/4 "2010-11-09T03:22:39Z")

</div>

Since there is another thread on this in the Game Room, linked to above, I’m closing this one.

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator