AMERICA IS OBSESSED with Omaha this week.
Anyone who watched last Sunday night’s AFC playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers will have noticed Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning’s fondness for the word.
According to the good people at the NFL who have actually counted — and made a video of it — Manning called ‘Omaha’ 44 times as he gave his team-mates instructions on the coming play.
It’s not the first time he’s used the signal but it’s all the talk in America this week. The Omaha Chamber of Commerce want to hire Manning for an advertising campaign while Omaha Steaks say they’d be willing to pay him top dollar to change his codeword slightly… to Omaha Steaks.
How much? Upwards of $150,000 per mention, according to an ESPN report.
The funny thing is that nobody — apart from the Broncos — have a clue what “Omaha” means. If they did, it would be pretty useless.
But that didn’t stop the media from asking Manning, who was more than happy to clear up the confusion. Kinda.
“I know a lot of people ask what Omaha means,” he explained.
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. There’s your answer to that one.
You didn’t think he was really going to explain it, did you?
