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The play, dubbed "The Steal Phantom," is top-secret. Its target, Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, is a very busy man. But the mission - whether received or intercepted - will become the subject of a feature-length documentary co-directed by Vincent, a GW senior, and Georgiades, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh.
No one but Vincent and Georgiades know the particulars of the play, which they keep locked inside a black briefcase emblazoned with the Steal Phantom logo: a question mark converted into star quarterback "Big Ben" Roethlisberger's ubiquitous number seven.
"We want to see if a regular person with no money - we're not sick, we're not dying, we're not the president - can get a professional sports team to run our play," Georgiades, 20, said. "It's a goofy approach to cropping the border between professional sports and fans."
Vincent and Georgiades, who attended Pittsburgh's Shady Side Academy together, conceived the project last summer over a late-night banana cream pie at Pittsburgh's Ritter's Diner.
"At that time, it was just a stupid idea," Vincent, a 22-year-old English major at GW, said. "It probably shouldn't have gone this far."
But within the next week, Vincent and Georgiades had the trick ironed out. Since then, the "stupid idea" has gained a Web site (www.stealphantom.com), a $2,000 budget and the attention of several local newspapers. Add cameraman and University of Pittsburgh graduate Trevor Cushing to the mix, and they had a film in the making.
The project has also gained a following in Pittsburgh, a football town where, Georgiades said, "you go to work 9 to 5, and Steelers on Sunday."
