To the jaundiced eye, it can almost seem like a form of mind control.
Apart from his undisputed skill at designing killer offensive schemes, Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman's most intriguing ability may be keeping a group of 45 men relentlessly focused and singing - in tune - from the same songbook.
If the 12-5 Als are unsatisfied about their discipline between the white lines this CFL season, and they are, they've been exemplary in another area: message discipline.
Speaking ahead of the season finale against the Toronto Argonauts (8-9) on Sunday - a game with no short-term stakes for either side other than personal pride - several players, and their coach, said the same thing: "There's no such thing as a meaningless game."
In the same way Als players always praise their opponents and say respectful things - a 42-15 record in the Trestman era could engender boastfulness, but these guys could teach even the Prime Minister's Office a thing or two about sticking to platitudes - they are determined not to look beyond Sunday to the East Division final at Olympic Stadium on Nov. 21. (The Als are assured a berth.)
"It might not mean much in the standings, but I'm not ready to say this is a meaningless game. It's a chance to play football, we don't have 82 games a year, we have 18, and we have a lot of work to do as a team," safety Étienne Boulay said.
Trestman is an exacting coach, and said he will be looking for several things from his squad this weekend.
"You look for maximum effort, we're putting our résumés on tape every time we can go out there," he said. "The most important thing, and we saw it in Game 18 last year, when we went down and played Toronto, is really setting a standard for us."
Beyond the words, there are gestures, and Trestman's carry their own message.
The Als are sitting veteran performers such as star quarterback Anthony Calvillo, running back Avon Cobourne, offensive lineman Scott Flory, receivers Ben Cahoon, Kerry Watkins and Jamel Richardson, defensive end Anwar Stewart and linebackers Chip Cox and Diamond Ferri.
One of the few regulars to play on Sunday will be kicker Damon Duval, who has struggled to find his form after an injury layoff - he missed a 38-yard field goal in Toronto last week that led to a wild finish and ultimately allowed Montreal to score the winning touchdown with no time left on the clock.
"I just need to get my timing back, I've been like a sprinter, sprinting up to the ball," Duval said.
Clearly, then, the Alouettes have begun planning for the two-week break that will precede the division final - it should be a salve for a team Trestman admits has not seen as many practice reps as he would like this season because of a busy travel schedule.
Part of Trestman's thinking is also that older bodies, in particular, need to be coddled after 17 games. But at the same time, he's reminding his charges about the importance of carrying momentum into the playoffs.
Perhaps the biggest issues the Als have faced - apart from the perennial consistency problems pro sports teams usually face the year after winning a championship - concern penalties and an iffy defence that was comfortably the league's best last year but has struggled to maintain that standard.
"We have some things to sort out, no question. It's little details, but they can make a big difference: lining up in the right spot, keeping your eyes in the right place - there's so much going on it's easy to start letting your eyes drift to the whole field when you should be looking at one receiver or one lineman," Boulay said.
Montreal is used to leading the CFL in all sorts of statistical categories, but penalty yardage isn't one of them.
The Als were penalized for about 250 more yards than the next closest team (the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) and flags cost them an average 111.8 yards a game, easily the highest in the league.
Their 24 pass-interference infractions - and 28 unnecessary-roughness calls - were both summits, as was the total number of penalties assessed to the defence.
"We're not where we want to be," Trestman said. "Where we want to be is a disciplined, penalty-free football team … those issues are costing us yardage and time of possession."