The Complete History of the “Flea Flicker”

coach and the greatest quarterback in the history of pro football Flea Flicker blunt threw it back that was a Flea Flicker and it might be the most famous play in the game of football whether you're a football fan or not you've probably heard this term thrown around before but what you probably haven't heard is the incredibly long history of this play its rise its eventual Decline and surprising Resurgence goes back much further than I'm sure you could possibly imagine fre flipper from their own end zone been reled by for a little Flea Flicker Thurman Thomas we go the Flea Flicker cin the Flea Flicker from Unitus that was off the flee fcker he catches It Wide [Music] Open the flea flickers designed when a quarterback would hand the ball off or sometimes pitch the ball to the running back who then tosses it back to the quarterback where he will then throw the ball downfield the concept is that the handoff or whatever trickery to get the running back the ball is going to cause the safeties to come down to stop the run and condense the defense leaving a favorable one-on-one route to a wide receiver or in the best case scenario the defensive back bites too leaving the wide receiver all alone ready for a walk-in touchdown but how did this beautifully developed play come to be and how has it evolved with the game of football the play was actually developed in the 1920s all that time of the war being over led to many using their tactical brilliance in the game of football instead of on the battlefield this includes a man by the name of Bob zupki now zukki was known for all sorts of trickery but I don't think anything he's done has stood the test of time as well as this play the first time it was ever performed was against Penn State in 1925 and it wasn't even an offensive play but used on a fake field goal and there's no footage of this play but according to the Wikipedia article about this specific play it was set up with the kicker throwing it to the tight end to had lateral it back to the holder and to me that doesn't really sound like a fle flicker so I'll do some interpretation and assume the kicker lateraled it back to the holder who then threw the ball to the tight end and that seems more like a fleet flicker that we know but this little trick play didn't stay in college for very long it eventually made its way to the NFL and the earliest instance I can find is the 1933 NFL Championship the first championship for that matter in a game at the time claimed to be the greatest game of football ever played the Chicago Bears would claw their way in for a touchdown in the final seconds and a play that is described as an improvised pitchback from the running back turned pass for Touchdown also known as the first recorded NFL Flea Flicker from here I'm sure it started to see a lot of play but it wasn't heavily documented at the time so we don't have many records of it that means the next one popped up in the third Super Bowl season as the Colts were primarily the ones performing this play they would pull it off successfully against the Atlanta Falcons earlier that season which would give them the HSPA to call one of the most infamous plays of Super Bowl 3 60 years after the first Flea Flicker of 1933 showing that not all Fleet flickers are going to be memorable for the team pulling them off in a game where legendary Quarterback Johnny Unitus was dealing with some injuries and was forced to turn over the keys to a struggling Earl moral the most memorable part of the play actually was how well it worked they handed the ball off it was pitched back and they had wide receiver Jim or running Scot free just yards away from the end zone and that would be awesome if moral ever saw him which he didn't and instead threw the ball over the middle leading to an interception which greatly contributed to the 16 to7 loss we would see this all again very soon as just 2 years later the Colts would attempt the same play but it would start off even worse than before with the lateral to the quarterback being interrupted by the defense but in a miracle the running back hav completed the pass to Mackey himself but as Mackey is about to score he fumbles it out of the back of the end zone for a Touchback luckily this didn't CA him as the Colts would go on to win the game and then a couple years later the Colts would do this again in a hell of a game against the Jets repeating the 1969 matchup this time unit is making the incredible catch of the lateral throwing the ball brilliantly and it resulting in a touchdown this spurred the 1970 to 1990 flee flicker frenzy as I call it the time that this play was absolutely at its peak the next noteworthy instance of this play was a Steelers match where you cannot convince me that this is how it was drawn up as a running back scrambles can't find a lane so he pitches it back to Bradshaw who then completes a pass over the middle to get them a nice little pickup and at this point though all the flea flickers were designed as outside runs with a pretty hefty throwback to the quarterback before he could complete his pass this would change in 1978 the success of this play apparently inspired the Steelers because the next season in the Super Bowl they drew it up properly but this time instead of it being that out Side Run and having it be pitched back they decided to run a reverse fle flicker greatly shortening the distance between the pitch to decrease the chance of something going wrong and it worked to Perfection and this was the first time the reverse and the fleu flicker would be seen together in one play 1978 would also see another Flea Flicker pulled off in a cowboy match during their dominating dynasty of the80s the reverse Flea Flicker would become sort of the standard as it's just as deceiving but significantly easier to pull off as we'd see it pop up again for the first time time ever in a Pro Bowl where it would be completed but still fumbled in 1980 where we would hit a really good decade for this play the reverse it's Rashad and the back to Manning 1981 we got this beautiful flicker in the Dolphins vers Patriots game that almost went horribly but instead resulted in a 55 yard pass to set the Dolphins up at the goal line 82 we would see this play rear its head on the biggest stage as the premier fake the 49ers led by Montana had a first quarter reverse flicker that resulted in a 14 yd gain on a crucial scoring Drive in 85 we would see a plethora of this play as it almost started to turn into just a chier play action pass the Patriots would run it not once but twice in a regular season game against the Dolphins with it succeeding once this time being seen both as an outside run and the halfback dive variation of this play but in a Redskins Giants game the same year we would get a stark reminder at why this wasn't the play action pass Joe thyman hands it off it gets pitched back to him and in the time it took for that to develop Lawrence Taylor would break to the line and through thyman tibia and fibula and arguably one of the most gruesome injuries in NFL history and the Flea Flicker part was just a footnote 1986 we continue to see this play pop up in the biggest stages with the Jets pulling it off against the Browns in the divisional round of the playoffs where they would go down to win a 23 to 20 Slugger in double overtime the same season we would get to see the flicker on the biggest stage possible once again as the Giants pulled off against the Broncos to give us one of the greatest celebrations to not scoring I think I've ever seen as this play years and years after its creation was still finding players absolutely wide open going deep for Cy Johnson Phil Maki now Maki head over heels at about the one or two Y Line 89 we see Legendary quarterback Dan Marino complete this play for a touchdown at as the flee flicking meta had all but completely switched away from the long across the field lateral to now faking the dive to a short pitchback and it was still as dangerous of a play as ever we would see the biggest Innovation on that play though come as the famous Flea Flicker would show up in new form with the Giants Taking on the Cardinals as they would pull the first ever fake Flea Flicker where OJ Anderson would turn like he was about to pitch it to break the necks of everybody and continue running securing a sizable chunk of yards we would still see our standard Flea Flicker though all throughout the '90s though as it remained a tool that every team seemed to have and want to try at one point or another heck the Browns use this play so much to complement their run game they' use it five times against the Oilers I think we did a double reverse met through the test an me I think it ran up in the back threw the ball back to Bernie Webb caught another one I think we did that five times for like five touchdowns but it was all flee flickers like you could run in Reverse throw it back to the quarterback and you threw a bomb then they threw yeah it was all over the place 9 two we'd see it in a bills vers Broncos match as they' go for the reverse Fleet flicker to leave a receiver wide open at the same year Marino would strike from Deep again as they use the dive variation to connect for 62 yards against the reers fck on theer fake 94 this play stays a powerful tool in the Dolphins Arsenal as Dan Marino would receive the pitch to throw a touchdown passing no other than Lea flicker Savant Johnny unit is in the record books of most games with a four or more touchdown passes check now I'm told that he passes 97 we would start to see the decline as we only got it twice this year with the Jets and the bills both pulling it off to a great deal of success Andre Reed got it Dale Carter Reed and Carter going at it and but 98 would give us arguably the most famous Fleet flicker early in the game Vikings quarterback Rand cummingham would receive the pitch and throw it deep to a wide open Randy Moss in a pass that would contribute to one of the most famous screenshots of all time then we wouldn't see it until 2002 where it might be the longest Flea Flicker on this list as a Giants were able to score from 82 yards out on this play as it seems to be getting better as it gets older Amani tumer Gibson can't bring him down touchdown Giants we would also see a much older now Jerry rice be on the receiving end of one such play now playing for the Raiders man even at 40 Jerry still had it this play would start to become less common in the early 2000s as the NFL shifted to more of a play action oriented style and the ground game was beginning to lose steam 2005 we would still see This brilliant pass from bledo for a 71 yd TouchDown blo longall for Glen who's open and two years later we would see a variant of the Flea Flicker For the First Time The Double backwards pass which opened with what looked like a screen that would set up a double pass to instead throw it back to Brady who would find Gaffney for a 56-yard walk-in touchdown in 2008 Drew Brees would complete his first Flea Flicker which is probably the most memorable for its amazing catch rather than the Flea Flicker play itself the 2008 Cardinals would now become Flea Flicker savant in their legendary playoff run a little bit of a Flea Flicker Warner up TI to L Fitzgerald highest point grabs it and in the very next playoffs would try it again against the Packers this time never getting home as Warner was strip sec in the 2009 regular season though we would see a beautiful Brady de Moss Flea Flicker play in one of the most dominating games in NFL history as the Patriots TRS the Titans the 2010 playoffs would in an ironic twist see the Saints complete a deep Flea Flicker against the Kurt Warner Le Cardinals in a decidedly easy victory for that Squad fires down field the early 2010s though were like the Dark Ages we'd see if Brady flicker completed in 2012 against the Ravens throw it back down the middle then another one in 2014 as the Cardinals were playing the 49ers and we almost got a pseudo Flea Flicker or should I say a flea kicker as this tackle in the backfield resulted in the running back bicycle kicking the ball to Derek Carr where if he had the time maybe he throws it 2015 we'd get a Halloween special as the SE Seahawks ran this play against the Panthers but a trend you may notice is that we're no longer seeing as many in the postseason and it's definitely not happening in the Super Bowl this is a first half chunk yardage play sad days indeed for our beloved play the same trend for the 2015 Giants and Saints match early in the game down by score and hey it works out for Bree so we can't be mad 2016 we'd see a pretty good Resurgence with the Browns throwing the worst Flea Flicker of this whole video with the call coming from the back of the end zone thrown into triple coverage for the uh arm punt maybe but the Cardinals would pull it off again with Fitzgerald being on the receiving end of his second flee Flicker and then that same year the Titans would pull it off to give Derrick Henry a chance of scoring got his opening man coming up short did he go up and get it and it didn't just end in the regular season this time we'd see our first postseason Flea Flicker in a long time as Brady pulled it out against the Steelers to get points on the board on their Super Bowl run the next season the Raiders decide they want to run a proper Flea Flicker instead of the flea kicker and Eric Carr connects with Amari Cooper for a touchdown against their division Rivals then in arguably one of the most legendary Super Bowl runs in NFL history the Philadelphia Eagles pull off this legendary play against the Vikings to score and later win the game before going to win the Super Bowl with a little bit more trickery just not flea flickery then in 2019 the NFL overlords called for a tall tall order of flea flickers so coordinators began dusting off their playbooks week three the Dolphins pick up a huge game G against the Cowboys at home by using this play even though it was close to going horribly wrong on that same weekend Derek car would use this play to put the first points of a game on the board while down 21 week five the Lions versus Packers game where on the opening play Matthew Stafford catches the lateral to connect for a 66-yard Flea Flicker pass or 3 weeks later we see Joe flacko of Broncos Fame completing the Flea Flicker pass for a 16 yd game against the Colts we'd also see the Rams pull out the double reverse Flea Flicker against the Bengals oh man what a year then in week 12 of that season the Seahawks pull off the same Fleet fcker they did against the Panthers this time against the Eagles for the exact same results and then week 14 Brady finds Edelman on the Flea Flicker pass in a heated battle against the Chiefs he's got it touchdown new that 2019 momentum would explode into 2020 as we got another four fle flickers this year led by the Texans who would do it twice this year and while we were long past teams doing it multiple times in one game it was still so awesome to see this play happen at this level at the NFL as often as it was but the most impressive thing is that closing in on a Century of this play's development it is still tricking people now the 2021 Texans weren't ready to retire this play as they would pulled out again this year it's a flecker looking deep forley he's got him touch and we would also see the burrowed Bengals give it a go with a a great deal of success which can't be said for the Steelers who the First Time in Forever threw a Flea Flicker for an interception there's a little throw back to rockas burer and he's picked off at Midfield we would also see the Bengals pull out the much rarer play which was the fake flea ficker for a good siiz run even though the slip at the end cost him the first down in 2022 the Texans would open us up again but this year the league calmed down with them as the Bengals once again completed one but not for anything more than just a solid chunk game which brings us to the most recent season where we can see the fle flicker is still alive and well maybe not flying as high as it did in the' 70s and 80s but making a Resurgence since 2019 like it hasn't done in decades proving that it is still one of the most iconic plays in football and that it may never ever die now if you enjoyed watching stuff like this consider subscribing and peace Seahawks Flea Flicker Jared G khif Raymond beautiful execution by the L and

Channel: Isaac Punts

Views: 78,093

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Id: ELQsLkZgsQE

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024