The Falcons get Sanctioned
So the Falcons have been pumping in fake crowd noise since 2013, and just got hit with a punishment for it. The team is fined 350,000 dollars and they lose a fifth round pick this year. Honestly, that strikes me as fair. I was initially totally against any draft picks being taken away because come on, fake crowd noise? Who cares? If your team is pumping in fake crowd noise what does that say about your crowds? What does it say about your home field advantage? It’s actually kind of pathetic when you think about it. It’s not like it helped them much, either. The Falcons haven’t exactly set the league on fire these past two years, even at home. So fake crowd noise is just kind of pathetic and I’m not really bothered by it at all. The speaker system still generates a lot of noise without the crowds. They pump in the music and sound effects, plus every stadium has those “MAKE SOME NOISE!” graphics when they want you to yell. I guess Atlanta just didn’t think much of their fanbase yelling and decided to sneak in a few Wilhelm Screams thinking no one would notice.
But, my opinion on crowd noise or not, it is still technically cheating. I’m surprised they are the ones caught or that they admitted to it, I’ve heard rumors about other teams doing it forever, namely Seattle, yet nothing has ever come of it. Also, since it is against the rules and dishonest, they need to at least institute some level of reasonable punishment to discourage other teams from thinking about it. So the fine is a joke, but a fifth rounder is fair. It’s high enough that it could be of some value, but not necessarily a lot of value and certainly not as much as a 1-3 rounder. Past round 4 most teams are throwing darts at a corkboard looking for possible depth so a loss of a 5th isn’t a big deal. I heard rumors of a 1st at one point with some people actually defending that, which is preposterous.
The funniest part about this for me is that back after the 2012 season, a Falcons fan friend of mine tried to convince me the Georgia Dome was up there with the Superdome, CenturyLink, M&T Bank, Mile High, and Lambeau.
I wonder if he recorded the voice lines for the fake crowd noise…
Wow, no love for Arrowhead?
One of the downsides of posting when I do is forgetting things like that. Hurts even more because I love Arrowhead’s design; how clever is your designer to come up with a design that reflects sound back onto the field in 1968?
At least you clarificated after the fact.
Wow. Jaded fans outside of Miami. Shouldn’t they be wearing I Miss Chris Chandler tees or something?
Silly upper organizations….
I mean, it says “make SOME noise” not “make a lot of noise”.
I remember hearing that the old Hoosier/RCA Dome in Indy was another one pumping in fake noise.
That never happened. Brady and Belichick once blamed the Colts for pumping noise after they lost a game there. The Colts stadium was smaller and a dome and their popularity in Indianapolis was higher due to the better performance and the Super Bowl win. The sound was fairly loud, but would also bounce off the walls and roof. It didn’t get investigated for very long, because the Patriots are the only team who though they pumped noise
Ha! But fyi, the 5th round pick lost is actually in 2016, not this year.
The crowd noise isn’t a big deal? Really? It gave a very slight competitive advantage, very very slight, but totally important to the integrity of the game. THE INTEGRITY DAVE. I’m sure no one will care and this won’t be brought up frequently 10 years later and people will understand that it wasn’t really important. I just hate the notion that “Well they suck, so who cares if they cheated?”
OMG where is the “NOISEGATE SCANDAL?!” I swear if this was the Patriots every sports news, local news, world news, and talk radio would be going on and on for hours on end about this. But it’s not, so no one makes a huge fuss about it.
/Rant
Yeah totally. Pumping in fake crowd noise for a below 500 team is totally the same as intentionally deflating balls to reduce fumbles and throw further, deliberately confusing referees to gain a slight advantage, and video taping practices.
Stay classy Massholes!
As a Dolphins fan who hates the Pats, I have to say that they have not been proven to have done anything wrong in the whole deflated ball scandal (because it was proven that they video taped from slightly closer than what was allowed). Also, the Pats played better in the second half, when they were playing with regulation balls. I assume that by “deliberately confusing the refs” you mean the whole eligible/ineligible thing, which was totally legal then. Kudos to them for finding a way to gain a competitive advantage within what the rules allow. And does it matter if the Falcons are a sub-.500 team (or the Browns in the whole texting thing)? Rules are rules, and the Falcons got caught breaking them. Pats fans are completely justified in being frustrated with the double-standard, even if it’s partially their own team’s fault for losing the benefit of the doubt.
>Pumping in fake crowd noise for a below 500 team
The fact that you point out that they’re a below .500 team immediately indicates that you’re full of shit
>totally the same as intentionally deflating balls to reduce fumbles and throw further
Never been proven to do it intentionally. And also it doesn’t help you throw further. In fact, taking extra air out reduces the velocity on throws. Lrn2science.
>deliberately confusing referees to gain a slight advantage
The refs weren’t confused. The Ravens were. And it was a perfectly legal tactic.
>video taping practices.
Which would be awful if it ever happened, which it didn’t. Totally fabricated story.
>Stay classy Massholes!
Go fuck yourself.
Epic response
I was getting ready for my own rant and then read this response, I have nothing to add.
+1 Epic Response
99% agree, but Cheps isn’t wrong about the Falcons sucking being important. If this were the Seahawks, and it was found that the home field advantage that was key to two superbowl runs, including one win, especially in the playoffs, was done illegally l, it’d be a lot more than a fifth rounder and a few hundred grand. Like it or not, he’s not wrong when he says that Atlanta sucking is part of why this is a fair punishment.
The rules are the rules. They should apply equally to everyone.
Another big difference is Atlanta admitted it from the start rather than deny deny deny or trying to cover it up.
As a falcons fan I have no problem with the punishment. My team cheated and deserved to be punished. However, the fact that they have proven the balls were deflated and yet no penalty comes to the patriots is atrocious and gets me fired up.
If it can be proven the underinflation was the result of a deliberate act, then there should be a penalty. But that hasn’t been proven, and I doubt it will be.
Boyle’s Law is a bitch.
The Falcons are cheaters! Put an asterisk next to their…well they’re cheaters, anyway!
As a Panthers fan, I was all for them losing a first-rounder. As a fan of the NFL, I believe a fifth-round pick is fair.
What surprised me is that the NFL handed out a punishment that was fair. That rarely happens, so…go NFL! Maybe you’re learning!
Arthur Blank doesn’t look like a mob boss. He looks like the one wealthy Republican uncle at every Jewish family gathering that tries to buy the kids’ love by giving them money, but they still resent him.
And that qualifies for an elite owner in the NFL. Sigh
We may resent him, but we never turn him down either.
I wonder if that really worked for the Falcons. I mean, a division loss vs Carolina are all the results for the fake noise.
I was gonna complain about how you kind of stole my name joke, but after seeing the name completely, I ain’t even mad.