It wasn’t a particularly special play in New Orleans Saints lore — or at least you wouldn’t think so. Just a 6-yard touchdown run by Mark Ingram in the first quarter of a 2016 win against Tampa Bay.cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale
But NFL Films had Sean Payton and Drew Brees mic’d up for that game and captured them relaying that playcall through the headset and into the huddle. So I used it as an example when each of them agreed to sit down and dissect just what exactly they’re talking about when they rattle off these cryptic, almost comically long sets of code words.
When I read it off to Brees to see if he could remember when the Saints might have used it, his instant recall was as mind-boggling as the terminology itself.
“I feel like we’ve called that play twice,” said the 39-year-old quarterback, who is heading into his 13th season with Payton in New Orleans. “I recall we ran one of those plays against Tampa like two years ago and scored on it.”
Brees said it was hard for him to adjust when he came to New Orleans — like “learning a new language” — before it ultimately became second nature.
“You’re really talking about a Mac vs. a personal computer,” said Payton, who laughed at the memory of coaching-pioneer Paul Brown being the first to send in playcalls from the sideline and trying to use his own secret communication device in the quarterback’s headset back in the 1950s before the league outlawed it.
“All systems can give you the same type of plays. It’s just, ‘How is it communicated? Are we naming the formation? Are we numbering the protection and then naming the route?’ It varies — and all are effective,” Payton said. “All of us, though, are searching to streamline that constantly. So you find yourself with words that you’re implementing to be one syllable — you know, ‘wasp’ — or those terms that come out of your mouth cleanly and quickly.cheap nfl jerseys china nike
“In your hurry-up or no-huddle, you might just say a word, and then everyone’s understanding, ‘It’s this play.'”
That goes for the trick plays that everyone gets excited about in practice all week, too. Like the unforgettable “Philly Special” that just helped the Eagles beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Or the Saints’ classic “Superdome Special” reverse touchdown by receiver Devery Henderson when they reopened the Dome after Hurricane Katrina in 2006. Everyone knows what to do on those plays.
