What does a quarterback hear in his helmet?

QBs have earphones in their helmets so they can hear their coaches, but this can't always be a good thing. Coaches will scream a lot during plays, does this mean that during a play the QB hears the coach screaming in his ear. Isn't that distracting? Or do coaches actually remain relatively quiet during plays? How do they prevent their voices from distracting their players when they are speaking directly into their ears? Do the QBs just tune them out?

When I'm watching a QB play, I'm never thinking about the fact that he's probably hearing his coaches voice in his helmet during the play. Is he?

Sometimes when watching an NFL game, it appears that a quarterback has an extra set of eyes on the field and as it would turn out, some of them do.

This “second set of eyes” comes from their head coach or offensive coordinator speaking to them through a speaker in their helmets. This is something that happens in most levels of football and today we will break down how this speaker system works and the rules around it.

Who is allowed to have speakers in the NFL?

Before 2008, speakers were banned from being placed in helmets and teams would get their play calls from the sidelines. However, in 2008, one on offense and one player on defense on each NFL team is allowed to have a speaker in their NFL helmets so they can communicate directly with the coaching staff.

Here is a great video on the history of radio connectivity inside NFL headsets:

Typically, this honor is bestowed upon the quarterback, so it makes calling and running offensive plays much easier. However, any player is eligible to have the speaker in their football helmet although it wouldn’t make much sense to have any other player on offense besides the quarterback’s helmet have built-in speakers.

While speakers in football helmets make for a helpful and efficient way for coaches to communicate with their football players helmets even while they are on the field, they are illegal in college football.

As a result, college teams typically come up with creative ways to communicate plays quickly to the QB.

However, there have been a handful of major rule changes and other switch-ups in college football. The most recent major rule change was to give college players the right to make money through their image and likeness.

This has been a major positive for the players as it gives them an opportunity to make business moves while they are still in college.

Along with this, many teams will be making conference changes in 2024. With all of this change occurring in the past couple of years, there is a chance that speakers being added to a collegiate player’s helmet could occur as well

.

Rules for Headset Communication

Below are the rules for football players and headset communications at the different levels of football:

1. High School

In high school, just like in college, having a speaker inside the helmet of a player is not allowed. Despite this, there are some private leagues in which this practice is allowed. However, for public high school teams, speakers in helmets are not allowed.

2. College

As previously mentioned, headsets in helmets are also banned in college football as well. Though this is something that could change in the future, there have not been any rumors of the rule being changed yet.

3. NFL

The NFL allows speakers in their helmets for the coach to talk to one offensive player and one designated defensive player.

Although this is not always the case, typically, quarterbacks are the players selected to have the speaker in their helmet since they are the ones relaying the play calls to the rest of the teams.

Who is allowed to speak to the quarterback’s headset?

Not all coaches are allowed to talk with the players on the speaker in their helmets in the NFL. According to the league’s rules, only players that are on the field are allowed to communicate with the players through their football helmet speakers.

This rule was put in place so coaches in the booth have a birds-eye view of the game.

How do coaches call plays when their headsets are broken?

At times, technical difficulties happen and the speakers do not work properly. In cases like this, coaches cannot directly call in their plays to the helmet speaker. In cases like this, there are a handful of ways that coaches still get their plays called.

On way is hand signs. On top of the names in the playbook for plays, most coaches also have hand signals associated with a handful of plays. Another way of going about this is using poster boards. Typically, assistant coaches hold up signs with four pictures on them to signify which play they are calling.

Another way that coaches can call their plays while headsets are down is to have the quarterback run over to the coach and physically tells him the play. The final method of calling plays while the headset is down that we will cover is the coaching staff simply allowing the quarterback to call the plays.

Very few quarterbacks earn the trust of their coaches to this degree. Some examples throughout the recent history of the NFL are Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Patrick Mahomes.

How do defensive players with headsets communicate plays to the team?

Defensive players with headsets communicate the play in a very similar way to how quarterbacks call plays.

A player on the defense, typically the captain, is the player who is selected to have the speaker in their helmet. From there, plays are called in by a coach and they are communicated to the team.

How do quarterbacks communicate in a huddle offense?

Another problem that can show up is trying to call a play during a no-huddle offense. Things are very hectic around this time and as a result, the offense can not huddle up and have the quarterback tell everyone the play in one place.

As a result of this, there are a couple of ways coaches go to fix this problem. The first way that coaches go about getting their plays called in during a no-huddle offense is to call in the play through the quarterback’s helmet speaker and he will run to his teammates and shout the play call at them.

While there is a good chance that the opposing defense can hear the play call, the offense just has to hope that they do not know what the play call means.

The other way that coaches could go about running their offense during a no-huddle situation is to have their quarterback handle the play calling.

As previously mentioned, this level of trust is only given to some of the best of all time, however, it takes a lot of stress off of the coaches. Along with this, it makes it so that if the headsets do go out during the offensive drive, the team will not be stuck in no man’s land.

Summary

As stadiums have only gotten louder it is critical for NFL quarterbacks and key defensive players to have speakers in their helmets so they are able to hear what the coach says. While signs are a decent alternative, every second matters in football and it seems like the progression to colleges allowing headsets in their helmets will happen in the near fu

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.

Whenever Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, and Patrick Mahomes take their first snap in a professional game, there won’t be any of those big signboards used to send in plays from the sidelines. You know, the ones with weird logos and emojis and photos of cats on them. They don’t exist in the NFL for one reason: the quarterback helmet radio. While it was invented in the 1950s by two Cleveland Browns fans — secretly, in the woods, at the request of the head coach — the sideline communications system we’re all familiar with was banned by the NFL for almost 40 years.

Warren Moon, Brian Billick, and Trent Dilfer were all part of the 1994 NFL season, and the first to use the QB radio system league-wide. They told us about the advantages and challenges the technology presented at the time. Helmet radios have changed the game for offenses and defenses (thanks, Spygate!) alike. This is the story of how they were born, forgotten, reintroduced, and evolved.