I can only think the intent was to run a play so amazingly stupid the other team would get nervous because they'd never seen any shit like that and jump offsides in confusion.

Notice how the Colts OL is deliberately ~2 yards behind the line of scrimmage after they shift to the side.

This was intended to trick the DL into lining up incorrectly, closer to the OL, which would be offsides gifting the Colts a free 1st down.

The snap was never part of the play. If the DL didn't fall for it, the team was supposed to just take a delay of game penalty and punt it as usual. But the center fucked it up, snapped the ball, and embarrassed himself, his team and his coaches on national broadcast.

Even if they had executed it correctly, it's still a little bit stupid because looking at the center and the ball is the #1 thing they teach the defensive players in terms of their formations. The odds of this working is so slim that it's just not even worth trying.

However, the center's fuck-up took what was just a silly insignificant trick play and elevated it into historic levels of idiocy that we are now commemorating annually.