Super Bowl and Tricks

On 4th and 1 inside the 49er 5-yard line, the Chiefs lined up with four men in the backfield, with the quarterback under center. Then, on cue, all four pirouetted(!) like synchronized swimmers and moved one step to the right. The ensuing snap then bypassed the quarterback and went directly to one of the running backs, who charged directly ahead for a first down, almost breaking the goal line. I heard this morning on ESPN that the Chiefs borrowed this maneuver from the University of Michigan’s 1948 Rose Bowl victory, although a clip showed the shift but not the pirouette. What effect the spin had on the defense, or the success of the play, I don’t know, but it sure was fun to see and must have been a kick to practice.

My second thought was that in years of watching the Minnesota Vikings, I have never seen such flamboyant trickery. There were also numerous reverses, flips, option runs and other creative plays more imaginative than anything done by the Vikings. Maybe it’s the nature of their stolid, Midwestern division: Chicago, Detroit and Green Bay tend to play straightforward football without the multidimensional quarterbacks rising elsewhere in the NFL. I recently watched a 15-minute YouTube video of Trick Plays in the NFL: fake field goals and punts, halfback passes, the Philly Special, etc. Conspicuously absent were the Vikings.

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