The Minnesota Vikings opened a new stadium on Sunday night, and one of their players thought it was a little too loud.
The Vikings committed four false starts in Sunday night’s game against the Packers, with the offensive line responsible for three of them. Guard Alex Boone said the fans were simply too loud and made things difficult, even when the home team was on offense.
“It’s loud, for some reason, in the stadium,” Boone said, via Ben Goessling of ESPN. “There’s a lot of times where we can’t hear the center. We could barely hear the snap count today a couple times — a couple false starts, because guys wouldn’t know when the snap was going. I’m not saying it’s the fans’ fault, but I’m just saying, it would be nice if they would shut the f— up a little bit.”
Coach Mike Zimmer was not about to criticize the fans.
“The fans were unbelievable. They were loud,” Zimmer said. “I’ve been in some of these games before where there’s a lot more green in the stadium. There was a lot of purple in here tonight, and they were as good of a crowd as I’ve seen. In my opinion, it was pretty darn loud.”
Boone probably won’t mind the noise if the Vikings make the playoffs and he realizes he won’t have to deal with things like this anymore. As it is, maybe things will be a bit more manageable in other home games against lesser rivals.
