Talk:Flea flicker

Recent examples

There were at least two flea flickers attempted today, including one by the Philadelphia Eagles on the first offensive play of their game against San Francisco resulting in a large gain. There was also one attempted, I hear, in the Carolina-Tampa Bay game.

I fail to see why the most recent example of a flea-flicker is stated in an encyclopedic article. As I have just witnessed on television a more recent example of the play, I am making a change to simply say that this play continues to be viable in 2006. BMBarnes 23:12, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Or, maybe I won't - someone was watching the same game and made the appropriate update - if the community is keeping up with the "most recent example", who am I to stop them? BMBarnes 23:14, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I just heard of this play, but based on this page's history, it doesn't seem all _that_ rare. It looks like it gets used about once a week by some team. It would be nice to have the page clarify what "rare" means. 128.138.45.168 20:15, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I read this article today, and I have the same concerns as BryanMBarnes about the "most recent example" thing. What if it becomes outdated? It doesn't seem encyclopedic to cover this sort of thing, so as a compromise I am separating it out of the main article and into its own section. That way the information is still useful and present, but also separate from an otherwise encyclopedic article. --Jeff 20:02, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Ditto. As of right now, the main article simply states that flea flickers occur a few times each season. I like it that way. If I'm counting correctly, there are 256 games per NFL season, plus the playoffs and college ball; a "most recent" example is only relevant if it's incredibly rare, like a drop kick, or becomes outlawed, like the Fumblerooski. -- A. 21:46, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think the Patriots example is truly a flea-flicker. Brady threw a LATERAL to Moss, who then through a LATERAL back to Brady. There was never a running play involved in any of this. As described in the article, the intent of the flea flicker is to make the defense believe it is a RUNNING play. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harveyjc 2001 (talk • contribs) 18:53, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Name origin?

Anyone know where the name "flea flicker" comes from?

I believe I read somewhere that the names has to do with the way a dog suddenly shakes itself to get fleas off. I think I saw that in a Peter King article. ~Sasha Callahan _(Talk) 05:40, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Few people seem to remember that the play was first executed by the Cleveland Browns and involved their wide receiver Walter "The Flea" Roberts. I can't remember the year or the other players involved. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.29.78.70 (talk) 02:07, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Recent Examples

I see no problem with adding recent examples. I know fans of WP:RECENT (which I tend to disagree with) might not like this idea, but if you think about it including recent examples helps readers. And we are here to build an encyclopedia for our readers, not to write essays. Besides, we include recent polls in the articles on politicians. ~Sasha Callahan _(Talk) 05:43, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Then the header should read "Recent examples" instead of "Notable exmaples" (emphasis added), and the sentence "Some flea-flicker plays have been used in many key National Football League games" (emphasis added) should be changed. My problem is that I disagree that a week 14 regular season game is a "notable, key" game compared to a playoff game, Super Bowl, or a play like Theismann's injury that has been replayed over and over again for the past two decades. And I would also strongly disagree with a reason like this was a "notable, key" game that helped the Patriots achieve an undefeated season when that has not even been accomplished yet (WP:CRYSTAL). I have seen a lot of football to know that New England's quest could possibly go up in smoke in the next two months with some fluke play like the last two minutes of The Heidi Game, Immaculate Reception, The Hail Mary, Holy Roller, The Miracle at the Meadowlands, The Comeback, etc. (which is why I do not fault Coach Belichick for what the media thinks is "running up the score", but that is another story...) Cheers. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:37, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Well if there's consensus to remove it, thats fine. I just disagree with the blanket statement in the edit summary that it violates a non-guideline. And I noticed that it was removed as not being a flea-flicker since there was no hand off. But most reports of the game call it a fleaflicker Providence Journal, Boston Herald, LA Times, The AP. ~Sasha Callahan _(Talk) 22:24, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Notable Examples

In the Notable Examples section, regarding the October 18, 2009 entry: I'm watching this game right now, and we (the Patriots) appear to be playing the Tennessee Titans, and not the Baltimore Ravens. Jaco66 (talk) 21:36, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Reception (American football) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 07:59, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Requested move 26 July 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: page moved. TonyBallioni (talk) 04:14, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

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• Flea flicker (American football) → Flea flicker
• Flea flicker → Flea flicker (disambiguation)

– Primary topic for the phrase. The website listed on the dab page has its name derived from this football play. Natg 19 (talk) 01:11, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

• Support. Looking over the disambig page, this does seem to be the primary topic. Rreagan007 (talk) 14:40, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. Clear WP:PTOPIC. I strongly suspect that the other full matches on the DAB page, the military operation and the website, took their names from the football play. Narky Blert (talk) 13:22, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. Clear primary topic by any definition. Calidum 13:52, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support Agree with above, the football term for it is the most known of all of the terms for it. My former high school football coach told us that the other names were taken from it which seems to be true. -Josalm64rc

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.