How to Play Gridiron Bridge

The Albers family played this game at the Wild Echo Lodge in Sparrow Lake Canada while on a family vacation in the early 1970s. They brought the game to Strongsville, Ohio where it briefly rose in popularity. The game, however, was only recorded in the memories of the participants, and ultimately waned in practice due to the number of participants needed for lively play. The Wild Echo Lodge itself was eventually converted to time-share condominiums making this blog post, quite possibly the only known record of the game.

Gridiron Bridge is designed for its simplicity, and super quick learning curve, so that guests can show up and play without feeling intimidated. It is effective at mixing people up with just the right amount of time to get to know people under intense competition.

As the name suggests, teams are 'football themed'. Each team consists of four players with specific roles.  Players begin by sitting with their own Team. These four cards are pulled from the deck: Ace, King, Queen, and Jack, shuffled face down, and each player draws a card that determines their role. No do-overs or trades! (The process can be repeated for subsequent rounds to switch up the roles.)

The Four Roles per team are:

• Ace: Team Captain — The Keeper of the Schedule.
• King: The Scorekeeper — The Keeper of the Potato.
• Queen: The Equipment Manager — The Dealer of Each Hand.
• Jack: The Waterboy — The Dealer of Refreshments.

Home Field and Scoring:

A Master Schedule must be created in advance — a copy of which is given to the Team Captain at each table. The schedule includes two items:

• First, the schedule states which suit is trump in each game (i.e. Hearts are trump)
• Secondly, the schedule states which team plays each team in each game (i.e. Buccaneers go to Cowboys. Cowboys go to Patriots, Patriots go to Browns and Browns go to Buccaneers in the first game)

The Team Captain and the Scorekeeper remain at their Home Field (table). The Equipment Manager and the Waterboy travel to away games (other teams' tables). So, in our example above, the Equipment Manager and the Waterboy from the Buccaneers would go to the Cowboys' table, and the Browns' Equipment manager and Waterboy would travel to the Buccaneers' Home Field (table).

A Potato is given to each Scorekeeper. The Potato is stuck with toothpicks with flags on them, which of course represents each unique team (i.e. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots, Cleveland Browns, etc.)

For each game, the winner is determined. If the Away Team wins the game, then they take a flag from the Home Team's Potato back to their own home field and stick it in their Home Potato. In our example, if the Buccaneers traveled to the Cowboys and won, they would take a flag from the Cowboys' potato and place it in their own potato.

However, if the home team wins, they simply keep their flag. When all teams have completed their game, we go to Game Two, Three, and so forth.

For 12, 16, or 20 people, play the rotation twice. Halfway through, when all games in Round One are complete, the Team Captain and Scorekeeper switch roles with the Equipment Manager and Water-boy, so that the other two people on your team travel for Round Two.

For 24, 28, and 32 people, rotate through all the teams once.

All disputes are settled with the best of three games of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

GamePlay:

The actual card game can be traced to the game of Whist — the simplified predecessor of Bridge. There is no bidding, the trump suit is predetermined, just start playing.

Players on the same team sit across from each other. The visiting team's Equipment Manager and Waterboy come to the table. The Waterboy makes sure the table has adequate refreshments. The Equipment Manager shuffles and deals out all the cards (13 cards per person).

Players are explicitly forbidden to comment on the hand they are dealt, and may not use hand signals, or other gestures to convey the quality of their cards.

The person to the left of the dealer always begins by placing a card in the middle. The next person, in clockwise order, must follow suit, by playing a card from the same suit led, if held. If a player does not have that suit, they may or throw a trump card, or throw off any other card.

Cards rank in order with the lowest being the Two, and Ace being the highest. Players must try to follow suit. The higher card in the same suit takes the trick unless a trump card is played which takes the Trick, and higher-ranking trump cards take the Trick as well. Once the winner of the Trick is determined the cards are turned face down in a stack next to the player who won the trick.

The person to the left of the dealer may also lead with a trump suit if they choose.

After the first trick, the lead goes to the player who won the last trick. We count the number of Tricks earned by each team to determine the winner. Winning visiting teams take a flag and winning home teams simply retain their own flags.

Set-Up:

The number of people determines the number of Flags per Team and Potatoes. 

• 12 People = 3 Potatoes, 4 flags per team.
• 16 People = 4 Potatoes, 6 flags per team.
• 20 People = 5 Potatoes, 8 flags per team.
• 24 People = 6 Potatoes, 5 flags per team.
• 28 People = 7 Potatoes, 6 flags per team.
• 32 People = 8 Potatoes, 7 flags per team.

All the Teams begin by sitting at their home table. After picking cards to determine their team Role, players arrange themselves across from each other for the first practice hand to learn the game. Teams may certainly help each other out to learn as much as they can before the Equipment Managers and Water-boys travel to other Away Games.

Sample Schedule for 8 Teams:

Game 1 = Spades are trump:

• Bears go to Broncos
• Broncos go to Jets
• Browns go to Bears
• Buccaneers go to Cowboys
• Cowboys go to Patriots
• Jets go to Rams
• Patriots go to Browns
• Rams go to Buccaneers

Game 2 = Hearts are trump:

• Bears go to Jets
• Broncos go to Buccaneers
• Browns go to Rams
• Buccaneers go to Patriots
• Cowboys go to Browns
• Jets go to Cowboys
• Patriots go to Bears
• Rams go to Broncos

Game 3 = Diamonds are trump:

• Bears go to Rams
• Broncos go to Bears
• Browns go to Jets
• Buccaneers go to Browns
• Cowboys go to Buccaneers
• Jets go to Patriots
• Patriots go to Broncos
• Rams go to Cowboys

Game 4 = Clubs are trump:

• Bears go to Patriots
• Broncos go to Cowboys
• Browns go to Buccaneers
• Buccaneers go to Bears
• Cowboys go to Rams
• Jets go to Broncos
• Patriots go to Jets
• Rams go to Browns

Game 5 = Spades are trump:

• Bears go to Browns
• Broncos go to Rams
• Browns go to Patriots
• Buccaneers go to Broncos
• Cowboys go to Jets
• Jets go to Buccaneers
• Patriots go to Cowboys
• Rams go to Bears

Game 6 = Hearts are trump:

• Bears go to Buccaneers
• Broncos go to Browns
• Browns go to Cowboys
• Buccaneers go to Jets
• Cowboys go to Broncos
• Jets go to Bears
• Patriots go to Rams
• Rams go to Patriots

Game 7 = Diamonds are trump:

• Bears go to Cowboys
• Broncos go to Patriots
• Browns go to Broncos
• Buccaneers go to Rams
• Cowboys go to Bears
• Jets go to Browns
• Patriots go to Buccaneers
• Rams go to Jets

Here is a link to Individual Team Schedules that can be printed out from Google Docs for the above eight-team Master Schedule.

The goal of the game is to cover your potato with as many opponent’s flags as possible so you can crush their spirits and claim total domination.

It really is fun, especially if you don’t take it too seriously. You may need to remind the “real” card players in the room that they may become frustrated by their non-card playing friends but they need to get over it. Or they’re going to have to eat their team’s potato at the end.