The botched fake punt play by the Indianapolis Colts against the New England Patriots remains one of the most bizarre and hilarious moments in recent NFL history.

No matter how many times you might think that you have rehearsed something in life, whether it be back in school when you’re working on the school play, or if you are at work and you’ve got a big meeting to prepare for, you might think that you have everything organised, only for things to fall apart at the last minute. 

The same thing happens in the NFL, no matter how many times you can work on a play, and let’s face it with hours and days worth of practice during the week to get things ready, you would hope that would be enough to get things down pat, but when it comes to gameday, there’s always the chance that things go wrong for you.

The Indianapolis Colts found that out the hard way when they took on the New England Patriots during the 2015 season, as they tried to execute a fake play, but ended up embarrassing themselves in the process in the worst possible way. 

The Colts outthink themselves 

When you take on the New England Patriots, especially during the peak years of their dynasty, you have to do everything that you can in order to gain an extra possession on them, and perhaps more importantly keep Tom Brady off the field. 

Although perhaps doing it from your own 37-yard line might not be the best idea. 

The Colts had the ball and were down 6 points, so still in with a chance of getting something out of the game, late in the 3rd quarter when they decided to pull off their fake play, only for the two key men in the play, makeshift quarterback Colt Anderson and fill-in long-snapper Griff Whalen, to mess the whole thing up, leaving Anderson to be gobbled up by the Patriots defenders and for the play to go down in history as one of the worst in NFL history:

The Patriots would score on their ensuing possession and win the game by a score of 34-27, so this play was a pretty crucial one in the grand scheme of things. 

Pat McAfee explains all

In 2019, former Colts punter turned broadcaster and WWE superstar Pat McAfee would explain exactly what went on with the play, and apparently it was all down to a miscommunication that occurred as Whalen, who wasn’t part of the practice during the week, wasn’t fully aware of his responsibilities on the play, which caused all of the confusion:

It does make you wonder why they still kept the play in if one of the key men wasn’t as prepared for it as the others were, but in a way it’s better that they did, otherwise we wouldn’t have this hilarious moment to look back on.