Have you ever been to an NFL game? What is the reason for this?

Many stories of espionage have been told within the National Football League. The latest stories are unique and unusual because they involve reading lips.

Scouts and coaches increasingly use lip-reading to predict the next play and detect signals from opposing teams.

Assistant coaches and coaches are more likely than others to cover their mouths while calling plays to quarterbacks, or defense players using the radio system that injects sound into helmets to prevent lip-reading.

To keep opposing players and coaches from hearing what coaches say, coaches cover their mouths while speaking to players. Catchers and pitchers meet on the mound of baseball.

Let’s just get started!

Why does the NFL coach cover his mouth during a game?

The head coach needs to make the right decisions in order to position his team for victory in front of thousands screaming fans, TV cameras, and players from other sides.

It’s important to know what plays are being played against you.

It is possible that a coach covers his mouth with a clipboard, or even a hand, while they are watching an NFL game.

The New York Times published a 2001 article about the NFL’s lip reading strategy to win football games.

The coach of the opposing team used this strategy during a game. The coach gave instructions to his quarterback via headset about how to play the play.

Signal theft is an old practice in the NFL. Teams are trying out this new innovation.

There are persistent rumors. Although it seems impossible, anyone who can make it possible deserves credit.

Coaches claim that cameras are zoomed into while plays are being called. It may be difficult for a spy or spy, however, to read the coach’s lips while the game is progressing.

Other teams could use this information to match the play called or the game recording in future contests. You can listen to the coach’s voice.

Experts say offensive plays are harder to steal than defensive plays. Defensive play-calling is more concise.

It’s important that opposing coaches can’t read the lips coaches.

The NY Times reported in that an NFL assistant coach at the time admitted to using this technique for stealing plays from six to five other teams.

According to reports, the coach stated that if you cover your mouth, your plays will be safe. Fair play is when you are reckless.

Some coaches may cover their lips with clipboards, their hands or their eyes with their fingers to protect them. Others may cover their mouths to cut background noise.

Professional football coaches are likely to continue using this strategy.

Two NFL Spying Techniques

There were many older spying methods that used simpler techniques. The Giants claimed that assistant coaches of rival teams stayed at a New Jersey hotel with a view over their practice field in order to watch the Giants play.

Lip reading has brought the art of espionage to a new level.

There are two methods to do this surveillance.

1. Although this is less reliable than the first, it still happens throughout the game.

Picture Sean Payton, the Giants’ offense coordinator, calling play to quarterback Kerry Collins via radio system that transmits Payton’s voice into Collins’ helmet.

A coach, or scout for an opponent, is high up in their coaches box and uses powerful binoculars to read Payton’s lips.

Payton slows down his reading of plays so that the quarterback can understand them. This allows the spy to absorb the information.

The spy records the play call and waits to see it again.

A coach can use the same play multiple times in a game or season. The spy in the sky then transmits it to the coaches. This informs the sideline coaches to alert the players.

Defenses have an advantage tactically by being able to anticipate what an offensive will do.

This lip reading method has one problem. In a chaotic environment, it is impossible to do this repeatedly.

Perhaps one or two plays could be stolen. The opponent coach tells the coaches, from the sidelines, what he thinks the opposing side will do.

Coaches insist it has been done with great success.

2. The trainers claim that lip-reading is easier when it involves television.

Many coaches can be seen calling plays on the networks from close up. Opposition cameras record coaches covering their mouths while playing.

Scouts sometimes videotape opposing coaches while they are in an upper deck box, or standing on the sidelines. Coaches claimed that they had slow down the film to make it easier for them to understand the statements of their target.

The spy can match the play called with defense’s on field activity to successfully steal a call.

How can the NFL staff guard themselves against spying?

A rival may doubt you but it doesn’t mean that your name has to be Bill Belichick.

As the “head coach”, you can assume that the other team will be watching you. Your competitor may also be acting in the same manner.

Belichick will be the first to raise the subject of NFL espionage because of the 2007 videotaping scam involving his team.

After he recorded the defensive signals from the New York Jets, Belichick and his New England Patriots were found guilty of flagrant violations league regulations. The Patriots were then punished by Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Rival football teams have been battling for years, accusing each of trying to steal information.

These were the methods that teams used to defend themselves.

• Intimate settings were used to call plays by the offense.
• Audibles may be sent by code or with different body gestures.
• When calling plays from the sidelines, coaches cover their mouths and bodies with sheets.
• Many practices are held outside behind high gates covered with tarpaulin. These practices are generally off limits to anyone not affiliated with the team.
• Assistant coaches get paid hours of surfing the Internet and watching videotape to find out as much as they can about their competition.
• Quality assurance assistants examine the patterns in their teams to determine what they are giving up on others.
• Teams no longer hand out loose sheets. Instead, they give out bound copies. Security personnel usually collect the bound copies and store them away before the players go on the field.

Defensive signals cannot be stolen, even with a camera. They are transmitted by hand/body movements and therefore impossible to steal.

A microphone-to-helmet-headset device is used by defensive coaches to communicate with a defender, just like on offense.

This eliminated the need for assistant coaches. These coaches were hired for their ability to read hand signals from players using the coaches box’s binoculars.