Seahawks fans’ noise caused safety on first play of Super Bowl

Seattle Seahawks fans have gained a well-deserved reputation for being some of the best and noisiest fans in the NFL. A lot of that has been attributed to the structure and design of CenturyLink Field, where the Seahawks play their home games. But if you believe that C-Link Field is the sole reason for the Seahawks having a homefield advantage, you’re definitely not giving the fans enough credit.

Seahawks fans are so good that they traveled to the Super Bowl in New Jersey and made enough noise to cause the Denver Broncos to have a miscommunication that led to a safety on the first play of the game.

There were questions immediately after the game about what led to the safety. Broncos center Manny Ramirez initially blamed Peyton Manning before saying it was his fault.

Thanks to NFL Films’ “Sound FX,” we now know it was the fans that created the problem.

“I called the snap count, you didn’t hear me,” Manning told Ramirez as he was jogging off the field, as pointed out by Shutdown Corner.

“We gotta go to the silent count,” Manning said twice to offensive coordinator Adam Gase.

The reaction from head coach John Fox was an interesting one.

“Little louder than we thought, huh?” Fox said into his headset with a smile.

Fox didn’t seem to be worried and probably just figured that was one minor hitch they’d be able to overcome. Boy was he wrong.

Manning even seem unconcerned at that point in the game.

“I called the cadence,” Manning said with a chuckle. “Couldn’t hear anything.”

Manning then admitted that they should have started with a silent snap count.

The safety was obviously one of the most notable plays of the game because it’s so rare that you see a team — particularly as one as sharp as the Broncos — screw up that badly on the first play when they’ve had two weeks of preparation. The play also set the tone for a Seahawks blowout that Denver never saw coming.

If you watched the Sound FX video, you would have seen that the Broncos still were extremely confident, and almost arrogant, that early in the game. I’m sure the mood on the sidelines changed pretty quickly after they saw how stingy Seattle’s defense was.