Listening To Madge

NFL coaches have relayed game plans to their quarterbacks on headsets since 1994 and a lot has changes since the Telex systems seen backstage at concerts, but things still don’t always go as planned, as Vikings offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave recalls from a 2008 incident involving the one and only Material Girl.

Madonna was playing at Oracle Arena the same day as a football game at the adjacent Oakland Coliseum.

“The frequency was tied in to the Madonna concert that was going to go on there in Oakland that night where the (Golden State) Warriors played,” said Musgrave, who was quarterback coach for the Atlanta Falcons at the time.

“We were listening to Madonna rehearse that afternoon prior to her show. That was going to be confounding to (quarterback) Matt Ryan.”

The NFL hopes that, with the launch of a new digital network, quarterbacks might not be distracted by free concert broadcasts.

Good news for Falcons fans, however, was that Ryan didn’t “strike a pose” during the game, and his team beat the Raiders 24-0.