A very somber “Siento” to the junior varsity football players at Grover Cleveland High School in Los Angeles, Calif., who have recently become a laughingstock on all points around the gridiron for the way they fell for the second-oldest trick in the trick-play book.
The play itself is one you’ve seen before: The quarterback—in this case, Jahlil Pinkett, the nephew of actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, a student at El Camino Real High School—goes behind center for the snap but emerges slowly and without saying “hike,” holding the football and shouting at the sidelines that he’s not holding onto the proper ball.
The coaches in turn act surprised; everybody stands up slowly. Quarterback walks towards the side of the field, away from many defenders, before squaring his shoulders up the field and running, untouched, all the way into the end zone.
The refs, rightfully, don’t blow any whistles, and the quarterback scores easily.
This happened late last week when the two teams squared up for an afternoon game. Now everybody’s got this image of 11 Cleveland High kids standing around while some celebrity’s nephew dupes them like whoa.
Photo via MaxPreps High School Sports/YouTube