The internet shared a chuckle over the weekend at the expense of actor Robbie Amell, who in a viral clip from the 2015 movie The DUFF appeared to have no actual idea how to throw a football, in a scene where he is meant to be playing a star high school quarterback. Have a look at this mess:


This sequence comes immediately after Amell’s character, named Wesley Rush, is told that he will be suspended from the football team until he can get his failing grades up. This is a problem for Wesley, because apparently his only chance at going to college is on a football scholarship, which he stands to earn by virtue of his understanding not just how to throw a football, but how to throw a football well. Which, let me just say, is not at all a skill on display in that scene!

It’s not quite Kevin Spacey tossing a baseball, but that is quite the awkward, shortened, painful-looking delivery. Several sports and movie knowers theorized that Amell was probably staring down many thousands of dollars’ worth of movie equipment during this scene, and concentrating very hard on not destroying any of it, which would account for a throwing motion that appears to propel the football with all the force of a gentle breeze. Amell seemed to confirm this theory Monday night, but it’s important to remember that a man will say anything to avoid the humiliation that is his due for throwing like a little baby:


When this explanation did not immediately end the onslaught of online ownage, Amell seemed prepared to proceed to a practical demonstration, according to his wife Italia Ricci, whose Monday was very quickly becoming very stupid:

But would our hero go through with the plan? Would he drag his poor, pregnant wife outside to film grainy cell-phone video of his true football throwing motion? It turns out a man will do desperate things to prove he is not a noodle-armed doofus:


Not so bad! Of course, tech-savvy people can do impressive things with video software in this day and age. Impossible to fully believe that this wasn’t doctored with some sort of deepfake software until every living person in North America has seen Amell throw a football with their own two eyes, in person.