Teams with offenses that are predicated on the quarterback making a majority of their offensive calls at the line of scrimmage - such as the Green Bay Packers - should be wary over the NFL requiring every team to have either the center or both guards to wear microphones under their shoulder pads.

After the umpire, who is mic'd up, was moved into the offensive backfield, the league and its television partners decided they needed to be sure they captured the line noise.

From Sam Farmer at the L.A. Times:

Ambient sound from the field was lost when, for safety reasons, the league moved the umpires from the middle of the defense to behind the quarterbacks. Those officials wore microphones, so when they were removed from that mosh pit they took most of the sound with them.

"Sound complements picture like picture complements sound," said NBC's Fred Gaudelli, "Football Night in America" producer. "One without the other is incomplete."

Unfortunately, a serious unintended consequence has reared its ugly head, and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is smartly speaking out about it.

Speaking with Jason Wilde last week, Rodgers pointed out that opposing defenses could easily take advantage of the new set up. It's not too hard to see how.

Watching the Falcons game on Sunday night, I was shocked how much both quarterbacks could be heard at the line of scrimmage, along with the centers making the line calls prior to the snap. Any enterprising defensive coordinator could have a staff member go back through the tape, listen to the calls - and then match them up with the film of each corresponding play.

This is especially troubling for teams like the Packers, Patriots and Saints who use a lot of "check with me"-type plays at the line of scrimmage, where the offense has a few possible plays called and the offense waits for the quarterback to decide which play to run after looking at the defense.

Rodgers is spot on when he says:

I think something needs to be done about it, I really do. It's one of those things where, when an offense had the headset and the defense had to signal in plays and you had the whole Spy Gate stuff, the competition committee met and decided it was in the best interest of the league for fair play to have a defensive player have a headset on. Now you're mic-ing the center and (teams are) able to hear cadence and potential calls at the line of scrimmage. I think something needs to be done with the competition committee.

And if you don't think teams would go to these kind lengths to get a leg up on their opponents, you must have slept through Spy Gate.

It's interesting to note that players league-wide are unhappy with the new arrangement. Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk went so far as to remove the mic prior to the Ravens game against the Jets. Birk was fined $5,000 by the league (he plans to appeal, saying the mic was jabbing him in the neck). One has to wonder if teams will quietly offer to pay these fines...

(The NFL did not immediately respond when I asked them for comment - which makes sense since I'm just some yahoo-nobody, but I did want to give them a chance to comment on the matter.)

The NFL is a creature of television. I understand their wanting to placate the networks. But this is a major mis-step that needs to be rectified.