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Seattle fans: unsportsmanlike conduct & loud home teams should lose home games
CNote
Posts: 2,070 ✭
in Sports Talk
The below is taken from mynorthwest.com
The noise from Sunday night's record-setting Seahawks game at CenturyLink Field continues to resonate in San Francisco, where some tender-eared fans are complaining the 12th Man gave Seattle an unfair advantage and should be silenced.
Judy Spelman and Rich Schiller wrote a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle about what they called "unsportsmanlike conduct" and "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."
Needless to say, the letter isn't going over well here in Seattle. But in an exclusive interview with KIRO Radio's Dori Monson Show, Rich insisted something needs to be done because the noise was unfair to his beloved 49ers.
"I mean it's really important for quarterbacks to be able to get their signals out for everybody and it needs to be a level playing field where both sides get the information just as easily. It certainly doesn't happen if the sound is too high."
Rich and Judy proposed monitoring decibel levels at all games and asking fans to keep it down. If they get too loud for more than three games, a team would lose their home games for the rest of the year, including playoff games.
"If they're told that, I believe, enough times, that there could be some repercussions, then it's probably going to be better," Rich says.
Judy says it's clear the San Francisco receivers were confused because they couldn't hear the plays.
"I don't think it is sour grapes at all. I think what we're saying is you put a whooping on the field because you had an unfair advantage. If you couldn't hear your signals and we could hear ours, you would have lost and we would have won," she says. "Home field advantage is a good thing everywhere, but I believe it doesn't have to be with noise."
It sounds like a joke, but they insist they're serious.
"We think it's dirty play. What you really want your team to do is to be the best team and you don't want the play or the outcome of the game to be distorted by an outside force like extra fan noise," Rich says.
The couple plans to send letters to every NFL city and launch a petition drive to get fans to demand the league change its rules and silence Seattle.
"Home field advantage is a lot of things. Seattle is the only place where it includes noise," she says.
While no one on the 49ers complained, Judy says when the fans get behind her effort, they will.
"It's like a political leader. You wait to see what your constituents want, you let people speak first and I think the fans need to speak. I expect you would hear from other teams."
Something tells us they'll hear plenty. It just might not be what they're hoping for.
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Comments
<< <i> 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. >>
Unless my mind is playing tricks on me, there was a noise rule in the late 80s. If the QB acted like he couldn't relay plays, the refs would give a warning and then a 5 yard penalty. They enforced it for a couple years (I recall it in the '93 playoffs against KC [we got *really* loud]) and then nothing was heard of it (pun kinda intended).
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Obviously the fan who wrote the letter is an idiot.
<< <i>To be 100% accurate, this was actually a letter to the editor, not an editorial.
Obviously the fan who wrote the letter is an idiot. >>
Yeah, thought I had included that- I wasn't intending to make it seem like it was an editorial....if that's how an editorial looked in a paper, yikes.
Also, there was a noise rule. It came about because of Arrowhead, Mile High, and the Kingdome. I remember watching games as a kid of AFC West rivals and the fans causing penalties. Outrageous.
<< <i>To be 100% accurate, this was actually a letter to the editor, not an editorial.
Obviously the fan who wrote the letter is an idiot. >>
I read this story on deadspin and at first thought it was a joke, but it's obvious the letter writers are dead serious. Also, it should be noted these were 49er fans (as the letter was published in the SF Chronicle.
So the crowd was loud. So what? If 49er fans could generate that kind of noise and that kind of homefield advantage they would, but because they can't it should be a penalty?
Hilarious.
Dave
<< <i>Embarrassed to be a resident of the great state of Nor Cal. Pathetic! >>
Wow. "The Great State of Nor Cal." Smug alert.
Oh well.
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
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<< <i>
<< <i>Embarrassed to be a resident of the great state of Nor Cal. Pathetic! >>
Wow. "The Great State of Nor Cal." Smug alert.
Oh well.[/q
Wow linking video to a series that was obviously rigged against the kings in favor of the Lakers? Typical socal if we can win we will cheat to get our way? Hilarious.