Falcons coach Dan Quinn said he had never heard the Georgia Dome louder than it was Saturday night.
He wants it even louder this week when the Packers roll into town for the NFC Championship Game.
Via Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Quinn said he was impressed by his fanbase after challenging them prior to the Seahawks game to be “early and loud” against the Seahawks.
“When you have a crowd like ours, for sure it’s an edge,” Quinn said. “I think anyone who was in that environment last Saturday night [knows]. I asked people, and they said ‘That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard the Dome.’ That fired me up to know we are going to bring the same energy as they are.
“That pumped me up beyond belief to hear that was as loud as they’ve ever heard it. I said, ‘All right, if that is as loud as it can get there is only one challenge out there, then.’ We hope that same comment is happening next week. Can we turn it up again?”
Of course, the Falcons have been willing to turn up the sound before, with or without fans.
They were once fined $350,000 and lost a fifth-round pick for piping fake noise into the Georgia Dome, but that was at a time when fans didn’t have all that much to cheer for.
Now that they’re playing the last game in the (I started to type venerable here as I ordinarily would for a closing building but it’s not really all that venerable) Georgia Dome, there’s not as much need.
And even if they did, they’re going to destroy the evidence and move next door soon anyway, so the world may never know.