Peyton Manning had “Omaha!”
Russell Wilson has … “Pizza! Pizza!”
And, no, it’s not just free advertising for Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL.
When Wilson called out “Pizza! Pizza!” against the Cleveland Browns last week, he was altering his teammates to an audible. Wilson was not completely changing the play. Rather, as The Athletic‘s Nate Tice pointed out on Twitter/X, the Denver Broncos quarterback was flipping a play.
Denver had originally called a read option play to the right side of the field. After getting to the line of scrimmage and seeing Cleveland’s alignment, Wilson called out “Pizza! Pizza!” to flip the play to the left side instead.
Broncos running back Javonte Williams and fullback Michael Burton switched sides before the snap and Wilson then ran a read-option with Williams to the left side of the field instead of the right.
Wilson clearly made the right decision — he ended up keeping the ball and rushed for 19 yards. Here’s a sampling of how fans reacted to the audible on social media.
