Is This Vine of a Football Recruit Catching His Own Hail Mary Real?

And more importantly, would this be considered a “hail selfie?”

https://vine.co/v/M6BHTU5gEUr/embed

High school cornerback Gary Haynes is getting some buzz today for a Vine in which he heaves a high and deep Hail Mary before taking off after it and finishing on the receiving end of it. The recruit picking himself off is out of Texas (because, of course Texas), and he’s looking to improve his value and expand on the offer he’s already got from the University of Houston. But is it real?

His speed is impressive, but we unstoppable journalists here at Maxim, who practice real good journalism or whatever, have some questions pertaining to the authenticity of the clip. Firstly (and most damningly), as he chucks the ball up you can see the shadow on the left side of the grass pass up to that white column and then disappear. Then, about a second later, you see it reappear, moving a lot faster and culminating in the catch. This supports the feeling we had that this ball hangs in the air for a little too long. Secondly, there is no reason that the videographer could not have shot the trajectory of the ball flying through the air. It seems that Gary threw his ball out of frame while another arm behind the camera tossed the pass that he eventually caught.


It’s an admirable effort to gain traction, and one that clearly succeeded. The guy is obviously athletic, and his craftiness may gain him some extra looks. But you’ll have to get up a little earlier to pull one over on Maxim.

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