Exactly it's simple physics - so it was fake. It was camera tricks.
Just because helium has less mass doesn't mean it will travel further. If you threw a golf ball and a ping pong ball which one would travel further?
It was most likely a fake, yes.
However, the concept in terms of physics is more complex than simply mass. Friction is the big key here, as well as rotation - would a helium-filled ball, with helium inside it, rotate faster and thus not be affected by friction as readily?
Someone claimed Mythbusters disproved it - some Poms on another similar show proved the concept to be correct in theory, albeit with a soccer ball instead.
In addition to that you have density to consider - helium is of a far lower density than that of air and thus 'floats' up. It also has a lower relative atomic mass and thus you could fill a football halfway with helium and it would still have enough bounce and whatnot in it to compare to a ball filled with regular air.
Under the right circumstances, this would definitely be possible - even plausible.
