As the Falcons brace from the hammer to fall from 345 Park Avenue, questions remain regarding the person(s) to blame for piping artificial crowd noise into the Georgia Dome.
Appearing on Thursday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed something PFT had heard from multiple sources: G.M. Thomas Dimitroff and former head coach Mike Smith had no knowledge of or involvement in the infraction.
Still, it’s clear that something happened — and that someone surely will be paying for it with his or her job.
“I think what we’ve done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong,” owner Arthur Blank said Tuesday, via the Associated Press. “Anything that affects the competitive balance and fairness on the field, we’re opposed to, as a league, as a club and as an owner. It’s obviously embarrassing but beyond embarrassing it doesn’t represent our culture and what we’re about.”
That anger has sparked speculation the team president Rich McKay could be on the outs. Ledbetter believes that McKay won’t lose his job, however. Instead, Ledbetter believes that one or two marketing or stadium operations employees won’t be able to use artificial sound effects to drown out the “you’re fired.”