So, as I watch da Bearsss go for another playoff run this year, I notice that when the camera shows the coaches calling in plays, they almost always cover their face with something, like the play card, or clipboard. I’ve noticed this in many games over the years. The way I figure, they’re either: a. Hiding their mouth from enemy lip reading spies , or b. Blocking out stadium noise so the listener can hear more clearly.
Given what teams will do to give them any type of an edge, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that teams do employ lip reading spies to intercept play calling.
So, what’s the straight dope? Any other info on how far teams will go to win is most welcome.
Well there was that memorable scene in The Last Boy Scout where the running back whipped out the .45 and blew a hole in the safeties chest, but people keep telling me that was just a movie, that it didn’t really happen.
Of course they keep saying that about that mule who kicked those long field goals for that team, what was the mule’s name…Gus or something like that??
OK, seriously, since it is a fairly common practice for baseball teams to try and steal signs, it wouldn’t be all that uncommon for football teams to use lip readers, although I don’t know how effective it would be because the lip reader would have to have the opposing teams playbook in order to decipher the terminology of the play being called.
According to good ‘ol John Madden’s commentary on last week’s Monday night game, it’s b). Madden claimed that it was Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid that first found that the reception was greatly improved when he did that …
I do know that baseball players cover their mouths now when they talk on the mound.
Greg Maddux is credited with starting this practice after he believed that Will Clark read his lips during the 1989 NLCS. Clark knew what pitch was coming and hit a home run.
However with baseball terminology, you can probably pick out “Fast ball” rather than something like football’s “42 slant right Z out” (which is about 1/3 of a football play’s length now.)
I wish I could give you a link, but there was an article on ESPN’s website roughly a year or so ago about this subject. The reporter had heard of this tactic and decided to test it. He got a bunch of lip readers (all of whom claimed they knew fellow lip readers working for the NFL) and watched a game with them. Then, a few days later, he met up with one of the coaches and casually started reeling off all his signals to him, along with what they meant, which he had figured out by watching the plays. The coach was pretty pissed off. Apparently, he was one that didn’t take the lip reading threat seriously and didn’t bother to cover his mouth. According to the article, in the next game, all his codes were changed, and he was covering his mouth.
Lipreading is so low tech. Why not use a system of parabolic mikes? This might not fly if you’re the visiting team, but in your home stadium you could have quite a setup.
The QBs all have radio transmitters in their helmets now. Presumably you could just intercept the signals. However, I think the NFL frowns on such things.
Presumably it’s sort of like nuclear war. You don’t do it, because then the other guy will do it.
Well, I’d guess that nothing is out of the question. And its certainly possible that there are lip readers out there, some working for pay for a NFL team or two.
As was mentioned above, Madden told the story on MNF that supposedly explained that Philly coach Andy Reid started the whole lifting the play sheet to your face when you call the plays. He says that it was initially done because the QBs claimed it made it easier to hear the play calls in a loud and windy stadium. I’d bet that people stated noticing it, and an announcer or two probably pondered out loud if it all was because there were lip readers out there. Either there was a grain of truth to it, or maybe it gave coaches a new idea, or perhaps they are all just paranoid. In any case, it probably doesn’t hurt to play it safe.
However, my big thing would be that it’d be pretty useless to do this, even if it were 100% successful. Coaches only call offensive plays into the QB who has a mic. Supposing the opposing coach could read his lips, on his own or via a lip-reader, he’d still have no way to communicate what was about to happen to his defense. He’d have only 10-12 seconds to read it, interpret it, and then try and get the right personel and defensive scheme on the field. Frankly, I think the odds of this working out on most plays is pretty thin. I suppose that coming out of a time out, or if it were some trick play where he could yell to his defense that it was a half back pass or something easy to defend when you know its coming it might work, but not from one down to the next.
In regards to using a parabolic mic, or hacking the broadcast system, both are most certainly outlawed by the league. Its not something in the basic digest of the rules, but I bet it’s in either the league’s charter or the unabridged rulebook. Needless to say, if you got caught it’d be pretty messy. I am certain that there is a rule which states that any equipment the home team has, the visiting team must have (usually heaters and communication to the skyboxes). While that’s not the intended application of that rule, it could be bent to ban those options in the case those possibilities aren’t expresly prevented somewhere.
I’d guess that there’s a certain fine line between lip reading being “unsportman-like” where using the high-tech stuff would be blatant cheating.
I think in a football game, it would take some time between the reading of the lips and being able to use the information. The first time you heard a call, it wouldn’t mean anything but the next time you heard that same call, you would know what it meant. But- to use it you’d have to pick off the call, translate it to its meaning, decide what defense to call, and get the play in to the defense. A lot to ask for in say 15 seconds.
In baseball, the lip readers and sign stealers have been around for ages. One team planted a spy with binoculars in the scoreboard, he stole the catcher’s signs and relayed them to the dugout. Another manager was giving the All Star team his instructions when one of the players asked “what signs are we going to use” The answer was, “Just look for your own team’s signs- I know them all anyway.”
An interesting side note is that if the Head Coach-QB signal were to fail, the other team has to turn theirs off as well. It’s all about parity and fair-play.
Andy Reid has said it before in a press conference or interview (can’t remember which), he covers his mouth & mic to reduce the background noise. The strange thing is why no other coach ever though of this. Shouldn’t it be basic knowledge of microphone use?
Not necessarily true. During the 2000 season, the Colts were playing the Raiders and by the first half, they were on top by 21-0. Greg Beikert, the Raiders’ MIKE back, was listening to Peyton Manning’s play calling and recognized that any play with a particular word (something like “horse”) meant it was a running play. During halftime, Beikert clued in the rest of his team and in the second half, the Colts were unable to generate any offense.
Well, not lip reading, but sort of:
“Well, the coach has grabbed his Johnson and pulled it straight down, and then his left nut and pulled it to the side once, no- twice. So that means he’s going to go out deep left, with a swi- no! Wait! He has just now pulled his schlong down and right! Looks like they’re goin’ for the field goal.”
~
You wouldn’t need to know the exact play to have a huge advantage. You only need to know whether it was going to be a pass or run, or whether it was going to the strong-side or weak-side, of if it was a counter, iso or sweep. That would make it significantly easier to defend.
And on a completely unrelated note, if you ever get a chance to watch football on TV in the company of a lip reader, do so. It turns out that usually when they show a shot of the coach on the sidelines, he’s cussing up a storm.
At least, so says a fellow I went to undergrad with, who could read lips.
All great info so far. I wouldn’t expect for a lip reader to try to intercept every play. As has been mentioned, time would be a factor. However, when one really needs an advantage, say during a time out in the final minutes or seconds of a game, or any other stoppage of play which is so common, to have your play known in advance by the other team would almost always spell your doom.
Omniscient mentions there is no way to communicate anything to the defense. Is this true? Is the QB the only player who can recv info? Is this by rule? If they wanted Urlacher to have a receiver in his helmet, could they? Would it be Urlacher?
Hmmmmmm…
The only player allowed to have a headset in his helmet is the QB. The coaching staff communicates to the defense using a series of hand and body signals, or by running in new players. Since a defensive playbook is about a 1/8th the size of a offensive one and the bulk of the movement and placement is dictated in response to the offensive formation, motion, and play-action its a plenty effective system.
If a defensive coach got his personel onto the field with a blitz called, and then the lip-reader told him that it was a draw play, he’d probably be left with no option but to yell from the sidelines “Draw! Draw!”.
Not that that option is useless, but having a lip-reader would not be quite the boon that the press has built it up to be.
Even if a lip reader could only capture two or three plays per drive and even if he could communicate that to the defense only at the last second it would constitute a huge advantage.
