The following is an interview that I had with Jake, a football player here at Northwest Missouri State University about communication in football.
The sport of football is a very complex game. There are all kinds of shifts, pre snap reads, and thinking that goes into the game. Like any team sport or organization there has to be communication involved to get the job done and done effectively. The sport of football has many different layers of communication and work from the owner’s office to the players on the field in between plays. The business side of football seems to be the same as any other business. Make as much money as you can while cutting expenses as much as you can to make the highest profit. This can cause problems as selfishness is not a good concept in a team game.
The business side of the equation is just one way that an NFL program communicates. I have played football for several years so I understand the concept of how communication works; but rather than here it from me I wanted to get the perspective of a current NFL player at Northwest. I interviewed Jake Baumgartner of the NWMSU football team. This is what Jake had to say about the game. Please note this is not a direct quote from Jake but more paraphrased of what he said, you know you do what you got to do to make the article flow.
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| Jake Baumgartner |
“I’ve never really had to explain how we communicate in football before so this might be a challenge. Since I’ve been playing it all my life it’s just been so natural to me, but here is the basic information that you need to know. We start every week (Sunday) with a film session where we sit in a class room or lecture hall and we watch film from the game the previous day and we talk about the good and bad things that we did on this particular day. We are separated into defense and offensive room where we sit down with our individual coordinators. Then the head coach comes in and we watch film on the team we are going to play next week, then we game plan for the team next week. A game plan is a coordinated strategy of how offensively and defensively we can attack the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team. Then during the week we have set times for lifting and practice. The biggest difference in communication between football and normal business is how we communicate on the field. To decide when we want to start the play or hike the ball as it’s called, we have what’s called a snap count. This is meant to change from play to play to keep the defense off balance and hopefully give the offense an advantage on the play. We have counts of 1,2,3,4, a hard count, and a quick count but there are hundreds of different things that teams can do. The first thing we do before anything is call a play. Plays can vary from team to team but we use a unique system of letters numbers words and phrases. A common play is called out like this. Wing right X flex 23 blast on 2. This phrase describes everything the players need to know about the play. Wing right is the formation of the play. There are thousands of formations that teams use and they all vary based on team’s game plan. X flex is a term that teams use to call a motion of the X receiver. The 2 in 23 describes the back that is getting the ball. Traditionally the 2 back is the full back or the blocking back. The 3 describes the hole that the runner is trying to go through. The offensive line has gaps between them and teams use numbers as code for the holes and on 2 is the snap count used to describe when the play is going to start. The last thing that I can really say that relates to everyone in football is how we label players and spots on the field. Each player is either a number of a letter for instance the X is a team’s strong or number 1 receiver and the Y is the weak or the 2 receiver. The Z is the slot receiver or the 3rd receiver and so on and so forth. Lastly the holes on the offensive line are labeled odds on the left and evens on the right. The quarterback is called the 1 the fullback is called the 2 and the running back is called the 3. Oh I almost forgot, the player’s numbers also have importance. If your numbers are between 1 and 50 or in the 80’s you can be a quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, or running back. Traditionally quarter backs are 19 and below, running backs are in the 20’s and 30’s and tight ends and full backs are in the 40’s and 80’s and wide receivers can be almost anything. Linemen are between 50 and 79 and defensive players are basically the same as offense but corners instead of receiver and so on and so forth. That’s all I’ve got so thanks for listing to me everyone and if you want more detail do more research on the internet.”
Jake knows a lot about the sport and he really has a good understanding. What he explained is just the basics and it can be played just about any way possible and many different teams will have different things they do. Check out the other links on my blog post if you want to see how other teams do things.
Click on the link to see an example of communication on the field during a football game. Although its not a NFL game it is one of the most uniqure ways to call plays. Watch as the Oregon Ducks us signs to call plays from their sideline.
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