I am a Bears fan so I can bring you lore of the "maximum risk, minimum gain" offense that was so popular under ex-Coordinator John Shoop. "Heave and hope" was another popular term for that offense, but you want a bonehead play, not a bonehead offense, so I'll have to go with 2 by the Purdue Boilermakers:

1. The bumbled bootleg by Kyle Orton. All he had to do was get a 1st down or two to run out the clock and win the game, but he lunged for a first down, jepordizing the football, and what do ya know, it popped out and was returned for a Wisconsin touchdown. Instead of positioning himself for the Heisman and his team for the national title, he gave name to future bumbles by other quarterbacks: "pulling an Orton."

2. Dorien Bryant's crossing pattern wonder-bust. A huge pass from Orton to bring the Boilermakers within a first down or two of the winning field goal at the Michigan followup to the previous week's Wisconsin disaster. But he makes a freshman mistake, stays on his feet too long and does not protect the ball, gets double-teamed by Michigan defenders and, of course, fumbles, sealing the game for Michigan. Purdue loses its confidence and procedes to lose two more games in a season that still had BCS potential after the Wisconsin loss.

Although he did not play organized sports this year, anything that Maurice Clarett did this year should qualify given this is an economics related site. Each time he opens his mouth he reduces the amount an NFL team will pay him next year.

Here's another piece of quarterbacking brilliance. Reggie Ball of GA Tech apparently lost count of the downs during the waning moments of Tech's game against Georgia. Consequently, on fourth down he threw the ball away (out-of-bounds) thinking that he was stopping the clock and would have one more play. Given that Tech is a highly-regarded engineering school, wouldn't one expect it to field a quarterback who can count?

If we're allowed to move out of the actual on-field game, per Maurice Clarett, I would have to nominate Ron Artest. Because a simple 20 ounces of suds were hurled at him from a likely intoxicated onlooker, he stands to lose $7 million in salary (before taxes). If we're talking economics here, I can't think of a bigger loss...that is, if Artest's Rap CD isn't successful.