Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is in his 17th NFL season, but he has never experienced a season like this one.
This season, with stadiums either empty or at significantly reduced capacity, Fitzgerald says the lack of crowd noise makes it easy to hear quarterback Kyler Murray in the middle of the field when Fitzgerald is lined up on the sideline, something that usually isn’t the same.
“I would say the home-field advantage is definitely not the same,” Fitzgerald said, via SI.com. “We went to San Francisco. That place is usually really tough. They have a loyal fan base, they’re used to winning, they’ve had a lot of success and not having that added element makes it easy, especially as an offensive player in terms of the communication. The way we play with a lot of tempo, Kyler can look out literally and just tell you what you have. You can check something and communicate very easily to your teammates. ‘I got this guy, you got this guy,’ or you can hear the defense communicating when they’re talking, in and out or a bracket coverage. You can actually hear them talking to each other. OK, they’re playing zone or playing man. You have a better understanding of what’s going on just because you can hear everything and not hear the crowd distracting you. So it’s a lot easier to play on the road thus far. We’ve only had one road game, but it definitely wasn’t nearly as challenging as it has been the last 16 years.”
Home teams are barely above .500 so far this season, with a cumulative record of just 25-23-1. Home-field advantage is not what it used to be.