<
        >

          New England Patriots

          Tom Brady's call at the line of scrimmage: 'Rex Ryan!'

          • Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff WriterNov 23, 2015, 09:14 PM ET
            Close
              Mike Reiss is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the New England Patriots. Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009. In 2019, he was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. You can follow Reiss on Twitter at @MikeReiss.
            Follow on X

          FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose verbiage in the shotgun or under center while running the team’s offense has been well documented over the years, added a different twist to his calls for Monday night's game against the Buffalo Bills.

          As the Patriots opened the game with an 11-play scoring drive, Brady’s voice could be heard clearly calling out, “Rex Ryan!”

          Ryan, of course, is the Bills' head coach. The Bills sent out a tweet after the call saying, "We're flattered."

          UPDATE: Brady had this to say about the audible call during his Tuesday interview on sports radio WEEI: “We do a lot of communication at the line of scrimmage, and there are different ways to communicate lots of different things -- the protections, the play calls, the runs, the Mike points. Sometimes you use their name because you’re playing them that week. We had some other names that we could have used on other plays as they relate to the Buffalo Bills. It’s just part of the verbal communication. I don’t think there was any ... the last thing I’m doing in the middle of the first quarter is trying to tweak Rex. I don’t need to do that.”

          In addition to Brady, the verbiage used by Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has generated headlines in the past, as his call of "Omaha!" once sparked an advertising campaign.