Music and sports have always been connected. When teams are putting together a highlight video they put together their favorite mixtape to back it up. When they enter the arena they come out to some pump up music. Some high school and college teams have even been known to play music during practice. But not at the professional level.
Bill O’Brien is changing that mantra and the Houston Texans coach has brought some high powered music to his practices. While the crowd bumps along to the music watching the players practice, Owner Bob McNair walks around the field checking out the progress of his players. Although McNair hasn’t expressed approval for the music, he isn’t questioning Bill O’Brien’s methods after he was brought in to the Texans following a dismal 2-14 season.
Known as Billy O to many, Coach O’Brien believes the music to be more than just playing players favorite songs like “Whatever You Like” by T.I. or something from U2. In a recent Houston Chronicle article by Jerome Solomon mentions that Bill O’Brien could be an innovator, cutting edge and cocky, in a good way.
O’Brien sees it differently though. He sees a young team that suffered from being one of the worst tackling and poorest offenses each week in the NFL. The music being played during practice is to help the players pay more attention to signals and it forces them to communicate with one another. O’Brien also mentioned that on Sundays, the coaches aren’t on the field making the decisions. Pre-snap it is up to the players to make plays and they are on their own to do so. By understanding each other’s body language and signals the teams should learn to communicate no matter the environment. The music also changes abruptly at times. Sometimes this happens right in the middle of the song. This forces players to react on the fly. With the new technique it will be interesting to see if the tactics in practice translate to wins on the field.