The NFL has decided to ease up on rules restricting teams from encouraging crowd noise as a way to make attending games more fun for fans. Unsurprisingly, some old-school types aren’t happy about that.
Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end and Super Bowl-winning coach, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he thinks it’s ridiculous to encourage fans to try to influence the outcome of the game by screaming at the tops of their lungs.
“It’s stupid,” Ditka said. “The NFL . . . who are they appealing to? It would be like the owners working at their desk, and all of a sudden they encourage people to come in their office and make a lot of noise. It doesn’t make sense. The key to football is you want to be able to see it executed properly. You want to hear the snap count. You want to see these guys use their talents where they’re not tainted. Sometimes when you have crowd noise, you’re not seeing the player at his best.”
Ditka might not like it, but easing up on the restrictions on promoting crowd noise is a pretty minor step. If players and coaches don’t like it, they’ll just have to adjust.