Few rivalries in sports fuel as much hostility and pressure to win like college football's annual Red River Showdown between Oklahoma and Texas.
And through the years, those monumental stakes have led to some serious skullduggery. The most notable example came in 1972, when the Sooners spied on Texas' practices, allowing them to block a quick kick the Longhorns had secretly been working on en route to a victory.
Now, thanks to Mike Leach, the 1999 game can officially be added to that same legacy.
During pregame warm-ups of that year's Red River Showdown, an underhanded script outlining OU's opening offensive plays was spotted on the field by one of Texas' student assistants, who scooped it up and took it to Longhorns defensive coordinator Carl Reese. To the heavily favored Longhorns, it seemed as if they'd caught an enormous break.
"We were trying to figure out if it was authentic," Reese said to ESPN's Jake Trotter. "We were in this state of, 'Can we believe this?' "
They shouldn't have.
It was a fake, part of a plot hatched by Leach, the Sooners' offensive coordinator, and consulted by the Longhorns, who quickly fell behind 17-0 before realizing they'd been duped.
"That does sound like Mike," said former Texas coach Mack Brown, unaware of the script at the time. "I do know this: Offensive coordinators are so careful with those scripts they wouldn't be losing them. Those things are valuable. Only Mike would think to lay one out there as a decoy."
In his 2011 book Swing Your Sword, Leach briefly mentioned the lark. But he never knew for sure just how seriously the Longhorns had taken it, how often they'd referenced it or just how effective it had been.
He was elated to learn recently that they had fallen for it so hard.
"These things evolve and become somewhat legendary," Leach said.
Snap, crackle, pop
Dallas Cowboys center Joe Looney has a way with words.
Looney, who is filling in for Pro Bowl center Travis Frederick to start the season, came up big late in the first half Sunday against Detroit.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott completed a screen pass to Ezekiel Elliott on the right side, and Looney and right guard Zack Martin were out in front to lead the blocking on what turned into a 38-yard catch-and-run touchdown.
Looney's big block, however, didn't come until he was well down field near the end zone, paving the way for Elliott to get in for the touchdown.
Looney invoked his own "Feed Me" tactic Tuesday, joking that he had some extra motivation to get downfield Sunday to block for Elliott on the screen pass.
"Everybody was just so surprised about how fast I was running and I told them there was a little Krispy Kreme box down there that I saw," Looney said, smiling, "and I had to go down there and get me one of them."
You've heard of pancake blocks by offensive linemen. Now we also have doughnut blocks, apparently.
Sports quiz
Where did Joe Looney play college football?
Answer
Wake Forest, where he was a second-team All-ACC selection in 2011 as a senior.
Sports on 10/05/2018