![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dd960457838bb756baa969016a96dc9c6df3734203bbf3c0eb6250aa6f1409cd.jpeg\")
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Oscar Bird produced a brilliant fake punt.\u00a0X<\/p>\n
Faced with a fourth and six deep in their own territory, punter Bird was summoned to, presumably, launch the pig-skin into Texas\u2019 half.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old shaped to kick while sizing up the defensive coverage and then taking off for a 17 yard (15.5m) scamper down the right sideline to earn his side a fresh set of downs (watch the video at the top of the page).<\/p>\n
A pumped-up Bird leapt in the air and punched his fist in delight before his teammates mobbed him in celebration – and sent social media into a frenzy.<\/p>\n
The big-gamble play gave the Rebels a much-needed spark, and led to a stirring comeback in front of the fourth-largest crowd in the stadium\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
But Texas held on for a 34-27 victory, with Manning rushing for two touchdowns and throwing for another.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old is grandson\u00a0to Archie Manning, and nephew of Peyton Manning<\/a> and Eli Manning, all three former NFL quarterbacks.<\/p>\n Manning\u2019s ascension to NFL stardom has therefore seemed destined since he was in high school while Bird is hoping a wildly different journey can get him there.<\/p>\n Bird was an aspiring AFL<\/a> player before making the switch aged 22, a member of the Sydney Swans<\/a> before spending three seasons with the Perth Demons in the WAFL.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt silly for the first few months of starting it because I wasn\u2019t at the level that I would be with an Australian football,\u201d Bird told Yahoo Sports last year.<\/p>\n \u201cBut with time and just knowing that there\u2019s been Australians who\u2019ve come before me and done really well at it, you just stick at it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sports Illustrated highlighted Bird\u2019s talents in an article last week, with a subheading titled: \u2018The Australian Invasion has Revolutionised Punting.\u2019<\/p>\n Tory Taylor of the Chicago Bears punts.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n \u201cWith the Chicago Bears, (Tory) Taylor has drawn attention for his so-called \u201cbanana ball\u201d punts, which move unpredictably through the air instead of following a conventional trajectory,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n \u201cThe unusual flight can make the ball more difficult for returners to track and catch cleanly\u2026 Bird\u2019s game at Ole Miss has centred more on distance and placement than the distinctive trajectory associated with Taylor\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Oscar Bird may be far from home, the Rebels could not be happier with the talents of their Aussie specialist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s Oscar Bird stunned a monster, parochial crowd of 104,306 with a brilliant fake punt play at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-941055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6dfe28739c33be4a43bb05d3171a04459ce8ddca.jpeg\")
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