Another theory holds that the original conception of the film was not for Gleason to play two different characters, but for the roles of Sheriff Buford T. Justice and the Bandit to be effectively combined into one part. That is, this time around Sheriff Justice, not the Bandit, was to be the one who took on an outrageous bet from Big and Little Enos involving a law-breaking, cross-country run, thereby making Gleason both Smokey, the lawman, and Bandit, the lawman's nemesis — Smokey IS the bandit!

Having viewed the film again with a critical eye, we have to admit there may be something to this second theory. The movie starts out with the Enoses betting Sheriff Justice $250,000 (against his sheriff's badge) that he can't drive from Miami, Florida, to Austin, Texas, by the following afternoon, carrying a large replica fish (actually a shark) atop his car the whole way as a promotion for the Enis [sic] chain of fish & chips restaurants. The Enoses then begin throwing up all manner of contrived roadblocks to delay Sheriff Justice and prevent him from reaching his destination by the deadline, but a short way into the film they suddenly call up the Snowman (Jerry Reed) and promise to give him the $250,000 prize if he'll take on the guise of the Bandit and stop Sheriff Justice from winning the bet.

The result is a jumbled mess, and Reed's function in the film is a puzzle. The premise appears to be that by recruiting the Snowman to imitate the Bandit, the Enoses can lure Sheriff Justice into chasing him (rather than driving to Austin in time to win the bet). However, Reed's Bandit does nothing more than repeatedly steal the fish off the sheriff's car, while Sheriff Justice (accompanied by his dimwit son) chases the Bandit to Austin in the course of retrieving it (all while the Enoses continue making sporadic efforts to foil the sheriff). The Bandit doesn't lure Sheriff Justice away from his destination, and Sheriff Justice appears interested in chasing the Bandit only just long enough to retrieve his fish rather than finally capturing him.

If we had to guess, we'd surmise that the original version simply had Sheriff Justice attempting to win the Enoses' bet, while Big and Little Enos played the antagonists, employing a variety of dirty tricks to humiliate and delay the sheriff and keep him from winning the $250,000. But test audiences didn't much care for a Smokey and the Bandit film that lacked both the Bandit character and the iconic Trans Am, so Jerry Reed was recruited to take on the Bandit role. New scenes with Reed were shot and integrated with earlier footage, thereby allowing Gleason to revert to the more satisfying role of the pursuer rather than the pursued.