Bill Belichick Explains Origins of ‘Omaha’ Call Peyton Manning Made Famous

Peyton, Eli and Bill Belichick on the Week 12 ManningCast.
Peyton, Eli and Bill Belichick on the Week 12 ManningCast. / @OmahaProd
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Omaha, founded in 1854, is the biggest city in Nebraska. Many years later it became a word that Peyton Manning would shout at the line of scrimmage during professional football games.

Until tonight, we had no idea why, but now the world knows that it was something Bill Belichick apparently came up with. During the Week 12 edition of the ManningCast, Eli Manning asked Belichick where it came from because when he was drafted the Giants already had a play called Omaha in their playbook and he had heard that Tom Brady had used the call long before his big brother made it famous.

"Yeah, I think Omaha was just call everything off," Belichick explained while Peyton Manning nodded in agreement. "Like pass rush and stunts and things like that. If the offense shifted and they went back to more of a basic look and you just wanted to go back to your basic defense then you just would Omaha something that you might have put on that was to stop a particular play. Omaha just killed everything and put it back to base. Same thing offensively. Omaha any check or new adjustment and go back to the starting point."

There you have it.


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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.