Sony’s New Coach’s Headset Was Designed in Collaboration With the NFL

Featuring a custom dynamic boom mic, the headset will debut in the fall

Sony Corp. today introduced the NFL’s newest coach headset. Starting this season, the generically monickered headset, which has neither a name nor model number, will be the league’s official coach’s headset for all 32 teams in what the manufacture says is an open-ended arrangement.

NFL’s Tracie Rodburg: “[The headset] has been a year in the making, but the rich history and the trust that we have with Sony have led us to this point.”

Design Elements

The new headset features a custom dynamic boom microphone, a change from the condenser mic on the previous year’s model (Sony provided the league’s coach’s headsets then as well, using an existing model). According to Sony Product Manager, Audio, Shunsuke Nakahashi, the goal is to further enhance off-axis noise rejection. The microphone also automatically mutes when the boom is lifted. Further, the headset incorporates real-time signal processing, to enhance speech intelligibility, and always-on noise-cancellation software.

Another element is construction: the headset is highly robust, tested to withstand coach tantrums.

“We did a lot of [drop] tests,” he says, laughing, “We are kind of aware of how it will be used [and are] trying to prepare for everything.”

Sony’s robust new coach’s headset for the NFL is designed to enhance off-axis noise rejection, automatically mutes when the boom is lifted, and features real-time signal processing and always-on noise-cancellation.

Along those lines, testing included Sony design engineers’ wearing it in a shower and in a freezer to check for moisture resistance and temperature stability.

“We’re very proud of the comfortable design, because everything will be happening outside — regardless of the weather,” Nakahashi says. “The game will happen, and the headset will need to support the game. We did lots of tests to make sure it is capable for NFL coaches.”

NFL VP, Football Technology, Rama Ravindranathan notes that the new headset’s development was a collaborative effort between Sony and the league, with the work taking palce in the U.S. and Japan and at several NFL venues, such as SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and Eagles Stadium in Philadelphia.

Testing further included taking in weather data from stadium locations around the country. “Sony asked NFL teams to provide all the weather information for the last 20 years to make sure what was the lowest temperature and what was the highest temperature.” he explains. “The headset needs to work perfectly regardless of the weather conditions.

“Also,” he continues, “when we visit stadiums, we report all the crowd noise, which is 100-plus decibels, and bring it back to the Sony Tokyo facility where we have some special rooms that can play back that kind of loud crowd noise to make sure those [units] will work effectively.”

Adds Rodburg, “This has been a true partnership where we have embraced a human-centered–design thinking process, and the development has been in constant collaboration with the NFL technology team, football operations, game operations, and also ‘yellow hats’ from the different teams.”

Headset History

NFL coach headsets have been an icon of the technical side of the sport for decades. The headworn contraptions, which allow coaches to communicate with each other on the sidelines and to radio play calls to the quarterback and a defensive player, date to 1956, when Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown was approached by inventors John Campbell and George Sarles with their new radio receiver that could be installed inside a quarterback’s helmet, allowing one-way communication from the sideline. The concept was tested secretly and was used just as covertly in a preseason game against the Detroit Lions that year, the receiver nestled in QB George Ratterman’s helmet. However, a Lions coach noticed the transmitter and complained to the league, which outlawed the devices until 1994. Then the NFL officially approved an RF connection to the quarterback’s helmet, which is identified by a green sticker on the back.

The headset category became business news in 2014, when Bose, which makes high-end consumer and professional/aviation headphone and headset products, became the league’s official supplier in a deal reportedly valued at $60 million, supplanting previous supplier Motorola. (The $60 million figure is an oft-cited estimate of the marketing value of the logo on the headset earpieces; no dollar figure was ever confirmed by the league or the manufacturer.) Bose’s arrangement was extended in 2017 and terminated in 2022. The league used a CoachCom headset during the 2023 season before announcing the Sony arrangement in summer 2024.

With a marketing dynamic similar to that of sports footwear, the headset category is potentially very rewarding. Bose, during its run as the NFL’s main headset vendor, also maintained separate endorsement relationships with several NFL players, including Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers.

In 2022, Navigate Research estimated the value of TV exposure for logos on coaches’ headsets at more than $72 million annually, even excluding the playoffs or Super Bowl. Thus, NFL coach’s headsets, seen on TV by millions for half the year, have become very big deals.

Sony and NFL: Happy Together

Sony’s Theresa Alesso describes the coach’s headset “the newest relationship builder.”

Sony’s relationship with the NFL extends to other categories. Sony President, Imaging Solutions, Theresa Alesso points out that more than 240 Sony cameras were deployed for Super Bowl LIX, including the halftime show, along with numerous Sony Alpha still cameras for press coverage by the Associated Press and other media. Sony’s Hawk-Eye virtual line-to-gain measurement system, she notes, also is used by the league.

“As of 2024,” she says, “we have four angles to be able to do instant replay. The next building block is the coach’s headset: the newest relationship builder.”