What color is the dress? Yanny or Laurel. And, now, Seahawks Geno Smith ‘heads’ or ‘tails’
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says it’s the NFL’s Yanny or Laurel.
Depending on your tone hearing, your dialect—or maybe whether you are a Seahawks or a 49ers fan—people are still debating whether Geno Smith called “heads” or “tails” for the coin flip at the start of overtime in Monday night’s nationally televised game.
“How about that?” Carroll said, incredulously, when he was asked about the only-on-the-internet uproar since Seattle’s last-play win at San Francisco.
“Has everybody done that?”
Seems so.
Television and online programs, voices and wild shots in the dark across the country debated what Smith said in the aftermath of the game.
As he prepared to settle who would receive the kickoff to begin overtime, referee Alex Kemp announced over his microphone Smith had called “heads.” By NFL rule, referees ask the visiting-team captain for his choice of heads or tails before he tosses the coin. (More on why in a minute)
The coin landed heads. Seattle took the ball, drove into the 49ers’ red zone and came yards from winning the game. But Russell Wilson underthrew Jacob Hollister down the sideline, and San Francisco’s Dre Greenwell intercepted the pass.
The teams played on through all 10 minutes of the overtime period. Jason Myers ended the wild game with a field goal on the final play of OT. The win has the Seahawks controlling their fate for the NFC West title with six games left in the regular season.
Some viewers, including presumably a large portion from Northern California, thought they heard Smith’s twangy call through their televisions or computers as “tails.”
Smith had the opportunity to interrupt and correct Kemp when he announced by way of confirmation that the Seahawks’ backup quarterback had called heads. Again, that was before the referee flipped the coin.
More than all that, and perhaps the most damning evidence against a “tails”-call conspiracy: Richard Sherman was the San Francisco captain. He was standing a couple of feet from Smith when he made his call.
As (not) mild-mannered as Sherman is, especially against his former team he believes unjustly used him up then discarded him, what are the chances Sherman would have stood there silently observing as he did Monday had Smith actually called tails and it landed heads?
Zero. Chances are better Sherman will play for the Seahawks next week.
“It didn’t sound like heads when you watch the TV copy. Both the official and Richard, they didn’t have anything,” Carroll said Tuesday.
“Richard would’ve griped, I would think.”
Carroll mostly managed to contain an even bigger grin.
“He would, for sure, if he heard something different than what happened,” Carroll said. “I’m going with that more than anything.”
Tuesday, at the beginning of his bye week with the luxury of having won Monday’s game and his Seahawks now being 8-2, Smith poked more fun at the furor on Twitter.
Thanks, Geno. Pot-stirrer.
This is all so 2019, a wholly internet-created “thing.”
Not that this latest internet creation deserves the title, but the NFL has had controversy with overtime coin tosses before.
One infamous incident 21 years ago this month is why the league’s rule is now captains must call the toss before the referee flips the coin.
On Thanksgiving Day 1998, referee Phil Luckett screwed up the choice of Steelers captain Jerome Bettis before visiting Pittsburgh began overtime in Detroit. Bettis challenged Luckett declaring during the flip that Bettis had called “heads.” The Steelers went off on Luckett—then went on to lose the game in OT.
Smith hasn’t played a down for Seattle this season. For those wondering why he was on the field calling the coin to begin OT Monday and not Wilson, the captain for the coin toss to start each game, the Seahawks coach has an answer.
Carroll said he began using backup quarterbacks to go out for overtime coin tosses back when he was coaching at USC more than 15 years ago, and maybe before that.
“The idea is instead of sending Russell out there and he’s talking to the referee out there, he can be talking about the next series coming up,” Carroll said. “All that kind of stuff is really what’s behind all of that, to give the quarterback the best chance to get prepared for the next series.”
Smith has become a locker-room folk hero for the consecutive overtime coin tosses the Seahawks have won in the last two games. They won the OT toss the week before against Tampa Bay, then drove down the field and won that game on that first possession Seattle got from that coin flip.
The funny thing about that is, Smith was out for the Bucs OT coin toss but had nothing to do with it. As the home-team captain, he watched the visiting team call the toss. The Buccaneers called “tails” (clearly, without incident, by the way). It landed heads. Yet Carroll keeps joking Smith “won” that toss against Tampa Bay, too.
Smith’s “prowess” in calling overtime coin tosses within Seattle’s locker room has gotten to the point his Seahawks teammates were chanting “Ge-no! Ge-no!” as the veteran QB walked out to the center of the field for Monday’s overtime flip.
“It was great. It was great,” Carroll said, grinning.
“He pulled it off again. I don’t know how he did it. A little magic of Geno. Even the magic that—what the heck happened? I don’t know.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 7:26 AM.
