The Atlanta Falcons are being investigated for potentially piping artificial crowd noise into their stadium over the past two seasons, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter reports that the offense would likely result in a fine and the loss of a draft pick. A Falcons spokesperson acknowledged that the team was aware of the investigation and is awaiting the NFL’s ruling.
“We were informed during the season that the league office is looking into crowd noise during our games,” the spokesman said. “We have cooperated fully with them, and we’re awaiting the outcome.”
The Falcons game operations department has been accused of piping in noise through the Georgia Dome PA system while the opposing team was huddling.
Atlanta is not the first team that plays indoors that has been accused of producing fake crowd noise. The Indianapolis Colts have been called out for years, though there has never been any actual evidence that they have done it.
Piping in crowd noise is similar to teams allegedly cutting opponents’ headsets or not showing certain replays on the stadium video board in order to gain an advantage. They’re basically accepted practices, though this particular one may prove costly for the Falcons.
