It’s Not a Double Reverse, It’s Just a Reverse

Sweet Fancy Moses, a play in which the quarterback hands the ball off to a player going in one direction, who then in turn hand the ball off to another player going into the opposite direction is not a double reverse. It is a single reverse. You see, the ball reversed direction a single time. Twice this weekend I heard a reverse described as a double reverse. Missouri’s two point conversion was described by Gary Danielson as a double-reverse pass. New Orleans fumbled attempt was described similarly by Terry Bradshaw.

This problem stems from the misconception that an end-around is a reverse. When a wide-receiver goes in motion and gets a hand-off, it is just an end-around. But many announcers mistakenly think that any play where the receiver is carrying the ball must be a reverse. Then when the receiver hands the ball off to another receiver, it must then be a double reverse. But they’re not. The double reverse is incredibly rare.

It’s incredibly rare because it’s a stupid play. The point of the reverse it to get a defense to go one way, while the play actually goes the other way. That’s the point of most trick plays. Flea-flickers, hook and laterals and — hell — even play-action passes and draws are meant to make a defense think the offense is doing one thing while doing another. A double reverse — when actually done — is intended to fake a run one way, then fake the run the other way, then actually run back the way the offense originally faked, right where the defense will be waiting. The only time a double reverse would be effective would be when an offense uses the reverse so often that the defense would expect it and — in anticipation — run away from where the play appears to be going in the first place. And even in this case, a fake-reverse end-around would be as effective as the double reverse and take much less time. This is why, whenever you hear “double reverse,” most of the time it probably isn’t.