The Buccaneers held a scrimmage at Raymond James Stadium on Friday and the simulation of a regular game extended to having crowd noise pumped in through the sound system.
That’s something the NFL is expected to have in place for games at stadiums that don’t have fans in attendance this season. The artificial noise will be a new experience for many players, but quarterback Tom Brady quipped after Friday’s scrimmage that it sounded familiar to him.
Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen was a longtime assistant in Indianapolis and Brady referenced accusations that the Colts played crowd noise through the RCA Dome speakers before the Colts moved in 2008.
“I thought it was one of the Colts’ old tapes when they used to pump all that sound into the RCA Dome,” Brady said, via Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. “I was telling coach Clyde that the must have pulled that out of his basement for today’s practice. We had a great time with it. It’s something to get used to. It definitely has its challenges. If that’s how loud it’s going to be that’s going to be tough for everybody. The communication’s tough and you don’t have a down moment. You’re screaming the whole day to people on the sideline, which is very unique to a game because normally it ebbs and flows. But with that pumped in crowd noise it doesn’t ebb and flow -- it just flows. We’re going to have to get used to that. I’m going to have to draw on my earlier days. . . .That was a joke everybody. Just want to make that clear.”
Brady’s former coach Bill Belichick also discussed the need to adapt to the lack of fans and the measures put in place to balance their absence on Friday. Brady’s approach appears to include a healthy sense of humor.