Plenty of quarterbacks can play well when things are easy. The protection is good. Guys are getting open. The opponent is weak. What separates the best from everybody else is how they respond when the circumstances get tough. It’s a tough opponent in front of a hostile crowd. The game is close, and you’re playing from behind. How do you respond then? Few in the NFL have proven better in these situations than Caleb Williams. As the pressure mounts, he seems to gain remarkable calm, which has led to some of the most impressive 4th quarter performances in recent memory.
Not all quarterbacks approach handling such tension the same way. Each has their own little methods for dealing with it. Joe Montana was famous for cracking jokes and making small observations that got him and his teammates to lighten up. Tom Brady would manufacture pressure situations in practice every day, getting used to the feeling as much as possible. For Williams, he’s turned to science for an answer. According to Elisee Devlin, the Chicago Bears quarterback uses humming to control his emotions during games.
The data behind this idea sounds crazy, but Caleb Williams is proving it.
Studies show that consistent humming releases nitric oxide into the bloodstream. This widens the blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. Then there’s the vagus nerve. This runs through the throat and chest and controls what you’d call the body’s “rest and digest” mode. Stimulating it leads to a lower heart rate and slowed breathing. This is something documented by science. It is another sign that Williams is far more informed than people realize. He does his homework, always looking for ways to improve.
For any of you movie lovers out there, Sylvester Stallone actually touched on this strategy in his 2001 movie Driven. In it, he plays a Formula 1 racer named Joe Tanto. His nickname was “The Hummer” because he tended to hum while pushing his car to its limits during races. It seemed so effective that his racing teammate, Jimmy Bly, used the same method to secure a victory in the final sequence of the movie. Was Stallone familiar with the science and put it in the movie? Even if not, that is some pretty impressive accuracy nonetheless.
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This is further proof of one thing.
Smart players are always looking for new ways to improve their performance. Science has often been the best way to achieve that. Just because something sounds unusual doesn’t mean it’s wrong. People turned their noses up at Gatorade when it was first introduced. Then Florida used it to gain a massive competitive advantage. Houston Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini cracked his ribs late in the 1978 season and wasn’t likely to play in the playoffs. Then an inventor named Byron Donzis came forward with something called a flak jacket that would protect the ribs. Pastorini wore it and won two playoff games to reach the AFC Championship.
Williams is just furthering that tradition of being proactive in seeking ways to better himself on the field. Humming during a football game may sound odd, but it certainly seems to be working. The quarterback has rarely looked rattled at any point this season.
