The Kansas City Chiefs have a history of having some unique play names under HC Andy Reid. When you have a playbook as thick as Reid does, you need to come up with some unique names to keep things fresh and fun.
We first learned about some of these unique names back in 2016, when former Chiefs DT Dontari Poe was still on the team. He was the beneficiary of plays such as “Hungry Pig Right” against the Raiders in 2016 and “Bloated Tebow Pass” against the Broncos in 2017. Last year there were a few good play names to come out of Super Bowl LIV, such as “Shift to Rose Bowl Right Parade.”
A pair of touchdown passes thrown during “Monday Night Football” in Week 3 appear to be the next in this line of unique play names for Kansas City. Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy wasn’t able to recall the name of the most memorable play of the night, LT Eric Fisher’s two-yard touchdown grab.
“What did we call it? It was Fish— that’s a damn shame I can’t even think of the name of it,” Bieniemy told reporters. “But it was a hell of a play. I’m not even going to tell you the formation which we called it, but it was one of our throwbacks. Fish (Eric Fisher), I mean we’ve been working this play for a while and it’s a shame that I can’t think of the name of the damn play, but he did a great job of executing. He did a great job of setting that guy up and then displacing him and putting himself in position to have success and catch it.”
The play name that Bieniemy was able to recall was Anthony Sherman’s five-yard touchdown catch on a shovel pass. It’s an instant classic up there with the likes of “Hungry Pig Right” and “Bloated Tebow Pass.”
“Everybody talked about the screen, as well, that Sherm (Anthony Sherman) caught,” Bienemy said. “And that play was named ‘Smoked Sausage’ because we call Sherm ‘The Sausage.’ . . . One thing I will say, we have a very very creative group of people in this building that can come up with a variety of names and we keep it fun. And you know what? The guys embrace it, they make it fun as well. Because when you give them those particular plays they take ownership in it and they want it to work.”
The creative minds don’t just come up with the names, but the variety of one-of-a-kind trick plays used. The play design is at the pinnacle of offensive creativity in the NFL. And if you’re worried that the Chiefs might have exhausted their arsenal of named trick plays before the first quarter of the season, you need not fear. According to Bieniemy, there’s plenty more where these two came from.
“We keep plenty available,” Bieniemy said, whilst chuckling. “We keep plenty.”