Peyton Manning made the word “Omaha” go viral on Sunday when he said it about 9,756 times during the Denver Broncos’ playoff win over the San Diego Chargers. Manning, who is known for his extensive audibles and pre-snap directions, kept saying “Omaha” while calling out coverages and changing plays. A reporter asked him about it on Wednesday.
As expected, the 37-year-old veteran gave nothing away. In fact, it was obvious he was trying to further confuse everyone.
“Is that like a fan written-in question?,” Manning joked, via Around the League. “I’m not sure. I don’t know how to answer that. I know a lot of people ask what Omaha means, and it’s — Omaha is a run play, but it could be a pass play or a play-action pass depending on a couple things: when, which way we’re going, the quarter and the jerseys that we’re wearing. So it varies, really, play to play, so, that’s — there’s your answer to that one.”
You mean Manning didn’t want to explain the ins and outs of Denver’s playbook in advance of his AFC Championship Game against Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots? That’s a shocker.
While some speculated that Omaha was a code word Manning used to alert his team he was going to try to get the Chargers to jump offsides, we highly doubt it’s that simple. Other quarterbacks around the league have used the word Omaha to alert their teammates that they are changing a play. It’s just a word that is easy to say and comes out clearly, and we hear it so much from Manning because he changes plays more frequently than any other quarterback in the league.
The Omaha frenzy is fun and all, but we really want to see Manning bring back the karate kick to alert his teammates of an audible. That would be fun to watch.
