UMaine marketing honcho John Diamond woke up Monday in a mischievous mood and sent out a tweet that has gone viral.
After the Indianapolis Colts botched a fake punt play in Sunday’s 34-27 loss to the New England Patriots, Diamond decided to have some fun. The Colts’ gaffe reminded Diamond of one of the most famous plays in Black Bears’ football history, when quarterback Chris Treister of Cape Elizabeth made a daring dash into the end zone for a two-point conversion that gave Maine a 25-24 overtime win at James Madison in October 2011.
In that play, as in the Indianapolis one, Maine lined up with just a center and Treister in the middle of the field, with the rest of the offense far to the left. Treister received the snap at the 10-yard line and raced around the right end, helicoptering into the end zone after being hit by a James Madison defender.
“Hey @Colts, this is how it’s done,” read Diamond’s tweet from the Black Bears Football account, which included a video of the play.
But mid-afternoon Tuesday it had been retweeted more than 2,000 times.
“He asked me if we should do it and I said, ‘It’s kind of sassy, but yeah, let’s run with it,'” said Tyson McHatten, assistant athletic director for community engagement. “It’s exploding.”
McHatten said among those retweeting the video was ESPN SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross. He said a Boston radio station and a Boston TV station had done stories about the tweet, as well as the web site Bleacher Report.
It’s a new burst of publicity for Treister, who played at Portland High School before his Maine career. His conversion run, in which he sacrificed his body, was No. 2 on ESPN’s Top 10 plays the day after it happened and was nominated for Geico’s FCS play of the year.
So, yeah, Colts, for future reference, that is how it’s done.
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