Artificial crowd noise rings hollow at So-Fi Stadium

L.A. Rams still figuring out how to create exiting environment without fans

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Playing in front of raucous crowds is the essence of the NFL, but most teams will likely have to go without fans at the start of the regular season.

With the league canceling preseason games and installing stringent health protocols due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, it’s understandable that NFL game days will be drastically different in 2020.

The Los Angeles Rams got a taste of that on Saturday during the team’s scrimmage at SoFi Stadium-- the first time the Rams set foot in their pristine, $5 billion facility.

With a cavernous stadium that seats over 70,000 people empty, the Rams piped in artificial crowd noise during the scrimmage.

Count head coach Sean McVay among the detractors for fake cheering.

“There’s nothing like real crowd noise,” McVay said. “In some instances that fake crowd noise is nothing but irritating. But once you focus on what’s going on in between those white lines, that’s all that really matters.

“Our players have the ability to focus and concentrate. Certainly, there’s nothing like what the crowd brings to the atmosphere and the environment, but we’re fortunate enough to be able to play football in any capacity, whether there’s fans in the stands or not. But don’t get it twisted, we certainly love having those stands full with people screaming and cheering.”

Unlike McVay, Rams edge rusher Samson Ebukam said the fake crowd noise did not bother him.

“When you’re in a zone, you don’t really hear anything anyways, especially me,” he said. “So I didn’t really think it was a problem at all. I just played the game.”

Just like the NBA and Major League Baseball, the NFL needs to examine how to deal with large stadiums without fans. All situations will not be equitable -- that’s just something the league will have to deal with in playing a season during a global pandemic.

Teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys are planning to have some fans at the home games because their state governments allow them to do so.

However, other teams like the Seattle Seahawks that traditionally have a home-field advantage are figuring out how much fake crowd noise they can pump into their stadium, creating an artificial 12 Man.

“I’m still waiting, just like everyone else, on what the league decides as far as crowd noise is going to go,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said. “I’ve heard different reports on decibel levels and what not. I’m not sure at where we had it today, but it was at a comfortable level – it wasn’t at anything that would cause any issues for anybody.”

2. With all due respect to Malcolm Brown and the six years he’s played in the NFL, Cam Akers should be the starter at running back for the Rams on opening weekend against the Dallas Cowboys.

Regardless, both Brown and Akers will play and should be productive players in the offense. But the rookie out of Florida State offers more explosive playmaking ability, and the Rams’ offense is more dangerous when he’s in the game.

“He’s still learning some things, just as all the rookies are with the short time that we’ve been together” Goff said. “But he’s doing a good job. He’s picking it up fairly quickly. There’s a lot of stuff that we do put on our running backs. We’re asking a lot of him, and he’s doing a good job.”

3. As far as the Rams’ return game, I thought second-year pro Nsimba Webster did a nice job handling punt return and kick return duties, and could be a possibility to open the season at that spot if the Rams do not want to use veterans like Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods, who will see a lot of snaps on offense.

4. The ratings for “Hard Knocks” are obviously down, leading some around to league to say it’s one of the most boring in recent memory. To me, it’s pretty simple -- the NFL is playing a season during a global pandemic and there’s no preseason games, and therefore no real, soap opera buildup to what you would normally see on game day, including position battles and those types of things. Further, the slow ramp up due to no offseason has created slow practices to watch during the first couple weeks. During a normal training camp, coaches would be working at a much more frenetic pace to get playbook inventory in for games, which would create more lively practices. Also, Antonio Brown was a reality TV show bonanza last year when they chronicled the Las Vegas Raiders their last season in Oakland. Hard to top that.

5. Interesting note here from Stu Jackson of Rams.com detailing the selection of artificial turf for SoFi Stadium. Also, some pretty good photos here from Saturday’s scrimmage.