It’s not unusual for an NFL team to have communication issues with their headsets during a game, but what was surprising was to see a home team affected by headset problems. That was the case for the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night.
Late in the first quarter of the Ravens’ home playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, CBS reporter Evan Washburn said that some of Baltimore’s coaches were having headset issues.
“During that previous possession, enough of their coaches were having interference in their headsets. They’re trying to remedy the problem. It didn’t cut communications, but there was clearly some coaches that were having trouble communicating upstairs,” Washburn said.
Because the Ravens’ system was not down completely, Tennessee’s communications were allowed to continue while the Ravens worked to fix the issue. If a team’s communications go out entirely, all headset communication is turned off to make things fair for both sides.
Here is the rule on the matter:
In the event one club experiences a coach-to-player radio system malfunction or failure, the other club does not have to shut down its system and may continue using it. However, if the coaches’ intercom system has been completely shut down on both sidelines pursuant to the equity rule, all coaches’ headsets must be removed, and radio communications from the sidelines to the field must be conducted by walkie-talkie only.
There have been plenty of rumors about teams having their headsets sabotaged during road games, but that does not apply here since Baltimore was home.
