Think of the last few seconds of a football game. Your team is behind, and there is no time for a careful plan. So the ball goes up as high and as far as it can, toward a crowd of people at the other end of the field. Everyone watches it fall. Nobody can steer it any more.
Hail Mary is a prayer asking Mary to help; the name says the throw is no longer a plan but a hope. The phrase is recorded from the 1970s in American football.
Hail Mary 是天主教向聖母瑪利亞求助的禱告詞，來自拉丁文 Ave Maria。把它放在 pass 前面，等於說這一傳已經不是戰術，而是祈禱。資料記載這個說法從 1970 年代的美式足球場開始使用。
Wiktionary entry 'Hail Mary pass' (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:2219024324:5963): from Hail Mary + pass; attested from the 1970s in American football.
Two branches
球場上的那一傳
這一組就是核心畫面本身：真正在美式足球場上發生的那一次長傳。
noun · C1
In American football, a very long throw forward, made near the end of a game when your team is losing and has almost no time left. The ball is thrown far down the field in the hope that a teammate somehow catches it and scores, even though that is unlikely.
美式足球的最後長傳
生活裡的孤注一擲
把球場的畫面整個搬到日常：條件不變，只是場地換了。
noun · C1
Something you try when you are close to running out of time and choices. It probably will not work, and you know that, but there is no other way left to get what you want.
孤注一擲的最後一招