In Memory of Walsh — The Wrong Ball Play

By Monday July 30, 2007

One of the great trick plays of High School Sports.



36 Comments
  1. Dauragon88 says:
    7/30/2007 at 11:30 am

    Classic, just friggen classic!

    Reply
  2. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:
    7/30/2007 at 11:41 am

    Was the snap legal?

    Reply
  3. MikeR says:
    7/30/2007 at 12:10 pm

    15 yards – unsportsmanlike conduct

    Reply
  4. BubbaRay says:
    7/30/2007 at 12:25 pm

    Absolutely, totally legal — here’s one from another angle with more commentary:

    Reply
  5. bobbo says:
    7/30/2007 at 12:34 pm

    Legal? Ok.

    Unethical, disrespectful, unsportsmanlike, even dangerous? Oh, Yes.

    Bet the coach even thinks he is clever.

    Reply
  6. Axtell says:
    7/30/2007 at 12:43 pm

    Legal perhaps, but using this crap with kids is just bad sportsmanship. This isn’t a tribute to Walsh, he’d never resort to kiddie crapola like this.

    Reply
  7. NSILMike says:
    7/30/2007 at 12:54 pm

    #5. Deception is key to sports… running backs twitch left, go right. Receivers run routes where deception is the key to getting open, outfielders fake a catch to deceive runners on base, pitchers hide their grip, heck the whole point of offspeed pitches is deception. I don’t think one can claim deception in sports as being unethical, although one can certainly argue the extremes…

    Disrespectful? Unsportsmanlike? Oh, yes. I’m with you 100% on those- especially in an amateur setting.

    Reply
  8. bobbo says:
    7/30/2007 at 1:16 pm

    7—YOU are the only one using the word “deception.” What sort of distinction are you trying to make that is not implicit if not explicit in the comment?

    So, are you actually trying to make the distinction between unethical manuevers and “extremely unethical” manuevers. Would that make the former legal and the latter illegal or what would the further distinction be then?

    So, this fake play==extremely unethical or merely unethical?

    Reply
  9. JohnnyL says:
    7/30/2007 at 1:36 pm

    This play is deceptive as all great trick plays are….unethical? Not even close , even at a high school level. Nor unsportsmanlike. The kids on the other team learned several important lessons which they will probably never forget and which can be applied in other situations on the field:
    1) Pay no attention to distractions
    2) Know the rules….if you hear no whistle and the ball is snapped, its live.
    3)When in doubt always go for the ball and /or the ball carrier. The worse thing that will happen is the ref’s will come in whistling the ball dead. Don’t stand around like a fool just because that’s what everyone else is doing.

    Reply
  10. NSILMike says:
    7/30/2007 at 1:42 pm

    The play was a deception- I expect that is what you objected to…
    You (not me) called it unethical- but it can’t be when visual deception in plays is a key aspect of the sport.
    It can be considered poor sportsmanship and disrespectful- which it is in my opinion. I think the distinction is important because many things are legal or ‘allowed’ but are distasteful- and that is what distinguishes poor character from good character.

    Reply
  11. Al says:
    7/30/2007 at 2:25 pm

    I think the video was posted because it is AMUSING. Jeez, what’s with all the moralizing?

    Reply
  12. Nate says:
    7/30/2007 at 2:50 pm

    Plays like that are the reason that my little league coach told us to hit somebody whenever the ball is picked up after everybody has lined up. They cannot call a penalty against you if there is also the potential for something like that. Sure, the parents didn’t like it when we hit the center that was asking the ref to dry the ball, but no way they were getting a cheap touchdown on us!

    Reply
  13. ECA says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:03 pm

    If the ball leaves the GROUND…
    NO whistle,
    NO REF..
    EVEN if some kid in the back called TIME OUT, there was no whistle…
    LAY THE GUY” OUT.

    Fair, YES…IT you dont know the rules, get OFF the field.

    Games are based, on War. PLEASE remember that..
    And NOTHING is fair in war.
    This teaches a lesson…
    ON THE FIELD ….
    IF you dont hear the Whistle…
    DONT see the flag..
    DONT hear the ref….
    DO IT….

    Reply
  14. Gregory says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:18 pm

    This play is illegal in pro games, even I know that and I’m a brit.

    It is however legal is the youth teams (which the video seems to show), though I’m pretty sure it’s also illegal in High School teams.

    Why is it illegal in pro games? Because it’s the worst king of poor-sportsmanship exploitation of the rules there is.

    Just because the rules technically allow something doesn’t make it right, which is why most games have a sportmanship penalty rule – to make up for the fact that no-one wants a rule book 300 pages long just to deal with clever dick players and coaches taking the letter, not the spirit, of the rules as their guide.

    Reply
  15. John C Dvorak says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:20 pm

    #6 Walsh ran a LOT of trick plays in his first two years with the Niners..LOTS. Later he didn’t have to. The other team should have spotted this and walked over with the kid. You boneheads crack me up with the “unethical” aspect. The original forward pass was probably called unethical too.

    It’s FOOTBALL! Even in college the now illegal “fumblerooski” play was commonly run and it’s as weird as this — almost.

    Reply
  16. Gregory says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:21 pm

    btw ECA – most Games aren’t based on war. They are however combative, competitive games. There is a difference.

    Games that are actually based on war tend towards strategy actually, not things like American Football, or Soccer. Chess, Go, and many other board games are based around this sort of concept.

    Reply
  17. ECA says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:35 pm

    14,
    SPORTSman like???

    16, as I SAID, and you made the point…

    14, And was it SPORTMAN LIKE in the Colonial wars that the red coats would stand in lines, while the US cits, hid behind trees, to Shoot back??
    Even Napoleon had his strategy that worked, until OTHERS learned it, and Played it against him at waterloo…
    Or the advancement of the Mongols, useing the Pincer movement, and the Fake…as well as Better archers…

    I can see it now in Iraq…
    TWEETT
    unsportsmanlike like conduct….15 yards…
    USA at the Al Qada 10 yard line..

    Reply
  18. bobbo says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:40 pm

    Seems to me “Sports” is about playing the game.

    Playing the “rules” is something else?????

    However, unlike some of my other heart felt pontifications, on this one, reasonable people may differ.

    Reply
  19. BubbaRay says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:48 pm

    Unethical, disrespectful, unsportsmanlike, even dangerous? Oh, Yes.

    Sorry Bobbo, if it’s a legal play and the other team is fooled, tough. No one broke any rules, looks to me like the other team was “outcoached.”

    Hey, it’s a game. There’s no lesson here about fair play, morality, disrespect, sportsmanship — unless you consider getting caught being fooled a lesson. I’ll bet the team that stood around got a real reaming from the coach later, as well they should.

    Reply
  20. bobbo says:
    7/30/2007 at 3:58 pm

    19—Yes thats what makes it “legal.”

    But there is “the other side” of the issue. A person stands up asking (the coach) for help and you are supposed to “hit” him? Sounds like there could be a serious mistake of fact here that could lead to injuries?? That and a whole generation of going by the letter of the law and not the intent of the law. So, either you are sensitive to that dual nature of such a dispute or you are not.

    Analogies to war?—gee, thats a tough one.

    Reply

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