The Washington Commanders vs. Dallas Cowboys Week 2 game caught a lot of attention. The game was a highly intense divisional matchup in which the Dallas Cowboys secured a 37-20 victory over the Commanders. However, the voice who was covering the game, Tom Brady, couldn’t help but reminisce about his old days while casually dropping some tactics he stole from a very famous Florida State QB.
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“Not a lot of plays you’re going to love at 3rd and 16,” Brady said during the broadcast. “So you have been working on these the whole training camp. All your gadget-type plays, you put them in in the offseason, and you see other people run them. We actually stole this at Michigan from Danny Kanell in the Seminoles, and we called it Seminole.”
Coaches and quarterbacks constantly watch the tape of other teams and copy their best trick plays. During their Week 1 win over the Broncos, the Chiefs used a 90-year-old trick play that was sent to Andy Reid by longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman. In Brady’s case, the original and the inspired usage happened in the same decade: the 1990s.
While playing quarterback for Michigan in the late 1990s, Brady and his coaching staff saw a clever gadget play run by Danny Kanell and the Florida State Seminoles. Michigan adopted the design directly from Kanell’s tape and named the play “Seminole” in their own playbook as a direct homage to Florida State.
While Brady specifically referred to the 3rd & 16 play in the broadcast, the Commanders also used another gadget play at 2nd & 6 towards the end of the 3rd quarter. That was also similar to a legendary Florida State play from the 1995 Sugar Bowl.
FSU QB Dannel Kanell collected the snap in the shotgun and threw a short screen pass to his running back, Warrick Dunn. However, instead of running with the ball, Dunn threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to WR Omar Ellison. For the Commanders, QB Marcus Mariota threw the screen pass to RB Antonio Williams. However, WR Terry McLaurin couldn’t hold on to Williams’ throw in the endzone.
At 3rd and 16, the Commanders tried another trickery. This was the play Brady claimed Michigan stole from the Noles. RB Dyami Brown took the snap in the shotgun and threw a screen pass to WR Rachaad White. However, the Cowboys’ defenders were on it, and the play resulted in no goal. Washington then missed the 51-yard field goal to make the entire drive useless.
When Danny Kanell was the starting quarterback for the Seminoles, FSU ran a highly creative offense. There was plenty to steal from. The offense also had a specific trick-play scheme built around a fake pitch or handoff to disguise a downfield pass. The play starts looking exactly like a standard outside run or a speed sweep. The quarterback fakes a handoff or a pitch to a running back sweeping across the formation.
Florida State’s running game was so lethal that the opposing linebackers and safeties would aggressively bite down. They used to abandon their deep pass coverage to sprint toward the line of scrimmage. Instead of the play ending there, Kanell would pull the ball back. The wide receiver broke away from the distracted secondary into completely wide-open space for an easy touchdown.
When Tom Brady gave him the surprise shout-out on air, Kanell was watching the broadcast like everyone else. He immediately caught the name-drop and reacted on social media with a humorous post on X, telling Brady, “You’re welcome @TomBrady.”
Kanell was a major star for the Florida State Seminoles in the mid-1990s. He threw for over 6,000 yards and 57 touchdowns, leading a highly explosive offense that college teams all over the country tried to emulate. Kanell was named the 1995 ACC Player of the Year after accumulating 2,957 yards and 32 touchdowns in his senior season.
He was drafted by the New York Giants in 1996 and served as their starting quarterback. Kanell led them to an NFC East division title in 1997. He later played for the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos before retiring.
Like Brady, Kanell also took to broadcasting after retiring from the pros. He initially joined ESPN and currently works with CBS Sports and SiriusXM Radio. Brady’s comment was a massive nod of respect from one former quarterback to another. It also told the younger viewers about the kind of offensive force Kanell was in college.