Whiny Whiner Fans...

[Warner4Prez]

Heard about this on the radio today and got a pretty good laugh. Evidently some gal submitted this letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and was apparently serious about it! :what:

Was anyone else appalled by the unsportsmanlike conduct of the Seattle Seahawks and their fans, juiced on noise, which surely creates as big an advantage over an opponent as any performance enhancing drug and which, to their shame, NFL officials turn the same blind eye they have to concussions and drugs ("Seattle states case loudly, clearly in rout," Sports, Sept. 16)?

It would be simple to fix. Seahawks players and managers would ask their fans to cease and desist, and the NFL would implement a new rule: The visiting team may stop the game when fan noise is greater than a specified decibel level, and should this rule be violated in more than three games, no home games will be played at the offending field for the rest of the season, including playoff games. Things would quiet down.

At a time when the world seems sour, sports give us a place of joy, community and hope, and to have it spoiled is a bigger loss than it seems on the surface.

The premise that fans that are too loud would actually cost the team home games has to be the most absurd thing I've heard in my life. Either this must be someone who's like 95 and incensed by noise, or someone who's never been to a football game before.

 

[RamFan503]

Crazy as this seems, there WAS at one time a personal foul attributed to fan noise. The refs would stop the clock if they felt the noise from the home crowd was such that the QB couldn't reasonably be expected to relay the play to his team. I thought I even remembered them getting on their mic and asking the crowd to quiet down. At some point the home team could be penalized and I think it was a personal foul. Gonna have to do some digging. I'd like to see if that is still on the books and if not maybe when it got taken off.

 

[RamFan503]

From the NFL site:

Loss of team time out(s) or five-yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise.

Oop - 2007 -

Crowd noise: The five-yard penalty against the defense for excessive crowd noise has been eliminated. The penalty had not been called in many years.

Yeah... THAT was the reason. Can we just call it what it was? The Paul Allen Rule?

 

[Selassie I]

From the NFL site:

Loss of team time out(s) or five-yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise.

Oop - 2007 -

Crowd noise: The five-yard penalty against the defense for excessive crowd noise has been eliminated. The penalty had not been called in many years.

Yeah... THAT was the reason. Can we just call it what it was? The Paul Allen Rule?

We were just talking about this earlier in the week. I remember when it was a penalty. I wondered why the rule was changed and who made the decision.

 

[bluecoconuts]

From the NFL site:

Loss of team time out(s) or five-yard penalty on the defense for excessive crowd noise.

Oop - 2007 -

Crowd noise: The five-yard penalty against the defense for excessive crowd noise has been eliminated. The penalty had not been called in many years.

Yeah... THAT was the reason. Can we just call it what it was? The Paul Allen Rule?

We were just talking about this earlier in the week. I remember when it was a penalty. I wondered why the rule was changed and who made the decision.

When the NFL got a nice big fat check from Microsoft.

 

[RamFan503]

When the NFL got a nice big fat check from Microsoft.

That's what I'm thinking. At the end of 2005 they were accused of piping in crowd noise. In 2007 the NFL simply changed the rules. Microsoft - official sponsor of the NFL.

 

[jrry32]

IMO, Seattle pipes in crowd noise. But there should be nothing wrong with being loud legitimately.

 

[-X-]

IMO, Seattle pipes in crowd noise. But there should be nothing wrong with being loud legitimately.

No doubt.

I went to the Miami game last year (Rams v Dolphins), and I remember sitting there around the 35 year line, about 15 rows up, and it all of a sudden got real loud with what seemed to be a ton of crowd noise during a particular defensive stand for the Dolphins. Well, I looked around the stadium because everyone around me (and it wasn't full) was NOT yelling. In fact, I could hear conversations around me. So I started scanning the stands, and saw very few people standing. Very few people animated. Very few people yelling. That's when I looked up into the upper sections and saw their speakers. That's where the noise was coming from.