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Lions fullback Jed Collins rocks the ball like a baby after scoring on a 1-yard touchdown catch against Carolina in Week 2. He wasn't fined for the play, but it did cause him some good-natured trouble. (Melanie Maxwell | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions' piled onto the team bus after their loss in Carolina and immediately started watching film of the game. One of clips shown was Matthew Stafford's 1-yard touchdown pass to Jed Collins.

The play is memorable for two reasons: It was Collins' only score of the season so far, and it came just 5 months after the birth of his first daughter, Palmer Grey Collins.

Collins paid tribute to her by rocking the ball like a baby during his touchdown celebration. The problem, though, is players are prohibited from using the ball as a prop.

"We were watching the tape on the way home from the game, and started laughing at it," Stafford said. "Somebody joked, 'Thank god he didn't get called for using the ball as a prop.'"

Collins knows the rule, but hadn't thought about it when he did his celebration. It was just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. But the quarterbacks got him worried he would get fined.

The fullback arrived in the locker room the next day, and there was no FedEx package in his locker -- the usual way these fines are delivered.

But then later, right before the team's walk-through, a FedEx was tucked in his stall. He knew that meant. A fine, probably for a couple thousand bucks.

Then he opened it, and his heart sank: $11,000.

"I was disturbed," Collins said. "I talked to my wife right after that, and was like, 'We're going to have to start watching what we spend money on. Christmas might be a little different this year.'"

But there was a catch.

The letter was a fake.

As it turns out, Stafford masterminded an elaborate prank that involved the quarterbacks, a couple other offensive players and even team president Tom Lewand.

Lewand is familiar with the typical language used by the NFL in fine letters, and helped Stafford doctor a lookalike. They packaged it in a FedEx envelop and everything. Then then they had it tucked in his locker.

Collins fell for it, hard.

"Right before we went out for warmups, apparently the FedEx guy showed up," Collins said. "FedEx, printed up, official from the NFL, the right terminology, the right everything.

"And they let me sit on it through all of the walk-through."

Collins spent the next few minutes figuring out how he was going to tell his wife. He didn't say much during the walk-through, and was visibly distressed.

He's known around the locker room for being smart with money, and also for obsessing over everything in life. That's why players knew he was going to flip over the outrageous fine. And he didn't let them down.

"I actually had to leave the locker room because I was going to start laughing so hard," Stafford said. "He did not talk at all during the walk-through. First play in the huddle, you could tell something was on his mind."

Players were dying.

"He was pissed," tight end Eric Ebron said. "So funny."

After the walk-through, Stafford finally decided it was time to put Collins out of his misery.

"No. 9 brought us up after the walk-through, and said, 'The message from Coach Caldwell is that we got to start playing a little smarter and not give away penalties. And by the way, Jed, that letter was from me,'" Collins said. "And then he just walked away.

"I went numb. After he told me it was fake, I went numb for probably 20 minutes, not knowing what to believe."

Collins now says the prank, though not funny at the time, has only made a special play even more memorable for him. He still has the fake fine letter at his house, and said he intends to frame it.

It's the best prank he's ever seen.

"It took a kind of sickness from the quarterback room to let me sulk in it," he said. "It disturbed me at first, man. Now it's hilarious.

"But you can bet the next time I (score), I'm playing it straight."

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