Ask Sam Farmer: How do names get on jerseys so fast on NFL draft day?

Have a question about the NFL? Ask Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, and he will answer as many as he can online and in the Sunday editions of the newspaper throughout the season. Email questions to: sam.farmer@latimes.com

Question: My question concerns the NFL draft. If nobody knows the selection before the "select" announcement, how does the NFL have the correct color jersey, with the correct player's name, for his immediate appearance onstage? There is no time! I can't believe the league has thousands, or more, possible combinations already prepared, which are then trashed!?

Ronald Palmer, Torrance

Farmer: I had the same question last year, and here's what I found: It's a little NFL magic, with an assist from Nike.

The league has a hot jersey press backstage at Radio City Music Hall, the nameplates of all 23 players in attendance at the draft, and a Nike employee at the ready to produce a newly minted XL No. 1 jersey. The same procedure will be in place when the 2015 draft is held in Chicago.
When Commissioner Roger Goodell is handed the name of the selection backstage, so is the jersey jockey who quickly lines up the last name and presses it onto the shirt. The jersey can be ready in as quickly as 30 seconds. It's not necessary that the player gets it that fast, though, because Goodell reads the name, the player gets time to celebrate with his family, then someone from NFL staff brings the player his hot-off-the-press memento.

"That's part of the overall shock and awe of draft day," league spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Times last year. "It's what they see from the time when they get picked up at the staging area at Rockefeller Center. From the time they arrive at the draft until the time they're picked, it's first-class treatment."

The league debated whether jerseys should be made for Day 2 players but ultimately decided it might be awkward to distribute jerseys with No. 2 — or, gasp, No. 3 — on them.

Question: Without huddles, how do teams call plays? Is everything called at the line of scrimmage?

Chad L. Budde, La Cañada

Farmer: There are a variety of ways a quarterback can get a play call. The most common is by way of the coach-to-quarterback radio earpiece in his helmet. The helmets for up to three quarterbacks can be equipped with these one-way devices, and the radios are shut off when there are 15 seconds left on the play clock. Only one coach can be on the radio, and he has to be on the sideline, as opposed to watching from a high angle such as the press box.

The quarterback needs to get across everything about the formation, the motion, the protection and/or the run scheme, all the patterns, and the snap count. Sometimes you'll see people holding up big signs on the sideline. Normally, that's signaling a formation, so that everybody running to the line of scrimmage can get that information in a glance. When they get in formation, players look to the quarterback, who can bark out the play and snap count to the interior players, and use hand signals to alert receivers.

And just think: In most cases, when they're not trying to be too complex or verbose, teams can relay all that information in only a few words.