MOMENTS after Nick Foles caught the ball for a touchdown with just seconds to go before half-time in the Super Bowl, your humble columnist declared "game over", and hauled himself off the sofa and up to bed.

A quick check of social media the following morning confirmed said prediction: Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles had hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, beating the New England Patriots 41-33.

A moment of brash, over-confidence from yours truly perhaps, although not one based purely on the Eagles pulling off an unbelievable trick play which saw the 29-year-old become the first quarterback to catch a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.

Conventional NFL wisdom dictates that the situation the Eagles were in, on the Patriots' goal-line on the fourth and last down with less than 45 seconds to go of the half and holding a three-point lead, head coach Doug Pederson should send on the kicking team to attempt a field goal.

Instead, knowing his team were up against the odds-on favourites and defending champions, Pederson decided to do what the Eagles had been doing all year and went for it.

Despite it being proclaimed as a bold call, the Philadelphia coach was just doing what his side had been doing all season. Relatively successfully as well, it must be noted.

The Eagles went for it 26 times on fourth down during the NFL regular season – only the Green Bay Packers attempted more – and converted 65.4 per cent of those, the third-best conversion rate in the league.

Added to that is the statistical fact more fourth down attempts succeed than fail so, if anything, Pederson was playing the odds rather going against them.

Of course, it is not simply a case of rushing forward to get over the line or flinging a pass to receiver, it needs something special to get into the endzone against the NFL's dominant team of the past 15 years.

For as someone once said, you can't dance with the champ, you have to knock him down.

Hence the 'Philly Special' play, which saw Foles peel off behind one of his linemen, the ball snapped directly to running back Corey Clement, then handed off to tight end Trey Burton – who played quarterback in high school – for him to find the quarterback as he strolled into the endzone uncovered.

It was a superb piece of play design by Pederson, and perhaps a result of the former NFL back-up quarterback getting his start coaching at high school level, where trick plays are more common and rule differences from the professional game favour the offensive side.

What is more, it completely flummoxed New England and his opposite number Bill Belichick, the finest football mind of his generation and one of the NFL's all-time great coaches.

For Foles too, it was the perfect way to cap a fairy tale year and a display which saw him named Most Valuable Player.

Not bad for someone who started the year as back-up to first-round draft pick Carson Wentz and was only thrust into playing midway through the season when Wentz was injured.

BECAUSE everyone is perceived as having a short attention span these days, plenty of sports are trying to jump on the bandwagon of having shortened versions.

There is Twenty20 cricket, variants of both codes of rugby and just this week the Australian Football League announced their own version, AFLX, which is intended to grow Aussie rules' international appeal.

Personally, they can do what they like to make it less impenetrable to outsiders, but I'll still never get my head around the concept of getting a point for having a go.

There is one sped-up version of a sport I will be watching over the next four days though and that is the Coral Snooker Shoot-out.

Featuring 128 players, the tournament in Watford is contested over time-limited, single frame matches featuring a shot clock and other minor rule changes.

So, the same game but with added unpredictability and is considered serious enough to be a ranking event. It all starts with defending champion Anthony McGill taking on Mark Davis at 12pm today.

IT is seeming more and more like, in the future, everyone will be Leeds United manager for 15 minutes.

Despite Andrea Radrizzani taking over the club from fellow Italian Massimo Cellino last summer, the hire 'em, fire 'em policy of the previous regime, which could best be described as eccentric, shows little sign of changing.

Indeed, when Leeds chairman Radrizzani opted to dispense with the services of former Spain international Thomas Christiansen over the weekend, it probably produced little more than a shrug from most outside observers.

Christiansen was the seventh man to take on the hot-seat at Elland Road since Cellino first blew into the club in 2014, and although his reign was only eight months, he still comfortably out-lasted predecessors such as Dave Hockaday (70 days) and Darko Milanic (32 days).

People have been members of The Fall for longer than some of the most recent managerial incumbents at the Yorkshire side, with even being 10th in the Sky Bet Championship and just seven points off the play-offs not enough to save Christiansen's job.

Despite that, the position still remains an attractive one – attractive enough for Paul Heckingbottom to make the switch from Championship and Yorkshire rivals Barnsley just four days after signing a new contract at Oakwell.

But while it seems there are no shortage of managers queuing up to be next through the revolving door at Leeds, the opposite is true north of the border, where the search for a new Scotland boss continues.

After all, who would have ever thought we would see the day where the Northern Ireland job is a more attractive one? Yet that is apparently the case after Michael O'Neill turned down the Scotland job.

Indeed, the list of potential candidates seems to be mainly people who have already had a go at the job.

Namely, Walter Smith, who has not worked in football since leaving Rangers in 2011, and Alex McLeish, who came within a whisker of taking the team to the 2008 European Championships.

Another name floated around is Malky Mackay, the SFA's performance director who took charge of November's friendly against the Netherlands.

This is despite Mackay being ruled out of the running for the job by Stewart Regan before he quit as SFA chief executive.

If all else fails though, there might be a few ex-Leeds managers who fancy a go at it.