shovel pass ; ✳shuffle pass.

The words shuffle and shovel cause confusion in a term from American football: shovel pass, in which the ball is scooped or flipped forward underhand as one might shovel dirt or snow. Some sportswriters have wrongly written ✳shuffle pass—e.g.: “‘But as I’m watching, they’re doing something about our game with the Bills and they show Buffalo running a play on film—(Jim) Kelly throwing a shuffle pass [read shovel pass] to Thurman Thomas.’” “So They Say . . . ,” Austin Am.-Statesman, 13 Mar. 1994, at E2 (quoting Jimmy Johnson, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys).

Language Change Index: *shuffle pass for shovel pass: Stage 1