The untold story of a Texas judge, his fraternity brothers and Colorado's lost playbook
A Texas judge and his fraternity brothers found Colorado's playbook in a Boulder hotel bar — then watched the scripted plays come true.
It began, as so many football stories do, in a hotel bar. Judge Bruce McFarling, who has spent more than 25 years on the bench in Texas's 362nd District Court, was in Boulder with around twenty of his old fraternity brothers for their annual road trip to watch Texas Tech face Colorado. Then somebody spotted it: a stapled packet of 8½-by-11 sheets of paper left behind in the Colorado team hotel's bar — apparently some kind of game plan.
McFarling's first instinct was skepticism. Details of the scene made him pause — no name on the packet, a staged-feeling welcome banner. A lifelong Red Raider and a big Mike Leach admirer, he recalled Leach's fake play script in the Texas–OU rivalry and wondered whether this was a ruse designed to fool them.
But one of the friends could not resist. Writing as "VivaTerlingua," he posted about the find on the "Inside the Double T" message board — and within hours a screenshot was ricocheting around social media, and the so-called leaked Colorado playbook had gone viral.
Then the game started, and the packet turned out to be genuine. Colorado's first six scripted plays of the first half and its first two of the second half tracked it exactly, with the Buffaloes driving 75 yards for a touchdown on their opening possession. At his Monday news conference after the loss, Colorado coach Deion Sanders simply shrugged the episode off.
McFarling says one of the group members still has the evidence, and their group chat lights up every time the story resurfaces. He pleaded the Fifth on the identity of "VivaTerlingua." "It made it a great story all weekend," he said.
Source: ESPN — Top Headlines — TrendWire reports stories in its own words; facts should be confirmed against the original source.