Eagles Adjust to Artificial Crowd Noise

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles got a taste of what the Phillies and Flyers have been drinking the past month or so, and that is fake crowd noises.

During the Eagles’ live scrimmage on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, artificial noise was pumped in to simulate what t would be like to actually have a crowd. That’s the best the Eagles can do at this point since the City of Philadelphia already ruled out fans for at least the first game, an edict that will probably run through September.

So how was it, especially for the rookies, who were “playing” at the Linc for the very first time?

“If you were to close your eyes and just listen to the noise you would think there were fans in the stadium, but being out there and seeing that there are no fans, in the back of your head you know its fake,” said receiver John Hightower, “but I guess it’s pretty cool to have the crowd noise so it wasn’t complete silence.”

Running back Boston Scott has played NFL games in front of the real thing, and while it helps motivate him and his teammates, he said the team will rely on each other to fire themselves up.

“I thought it was a unique experience, but at the end of the day, we all fed off of each other as far as energy, juice, and I think that’s something infectious about his organization, from the coaching staff down to the players,” said Scott. “It starts with Coach Dougie P (Doug Pederson), he makes sure the standard is set and all the juice and all the energy follows that. We have a bunch of guys that love football and you see it on a day-to-day basis, so nothing changed much with us.”

Read about Boston Scott's thoughts on (probably) making the roster out of training camp for first time in career at Eagles Extra Plus:

/nfl/eagles/eagles-extra-plus/boston-scott-keeping-emotion-in-check-with-roster-spot-all-but-secured

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said he is hopeful that at some point during the season fans in some capacity, will be allowed in.

NFL cities such as Dallas, Green Bay, and Kansas City are allowed to have a certain percentage of their stadiums filled.

“We have been trying very, very hard to come up with solutions that are safe and innovative in time for the beginning of the season, and we've had a lot of really creative and constructive conversations with the state and the city, and that continues on a daily and weekly basis,” said Lurie on Sunday evening.

“We are hopeful there's going to be real ways of having significant fans in our stadium pretty soon. Maybe not for September but after that, and we're looking at innovative ways of testing, with rapid testing, with point-of-care testing, with home testing.”

Many NFL players, including Eagles defensive lineman Brandon Graham, like to feed off the energy a crowd provides.

But Graham was on board with the fake noise, for now. Really, though, he has no choice.

“It doesn't sound no different other than you just can't see anybody, obviously,” said Graham. “But it definitely is a ... great start so far of feeling like you a part of the game. It’s not going to feel any different.

“And I think that they're going to work on the levels of, like, when people make big plays if you're home, you know? You get a crowd, you know, ‘Hoo-rah.’ But I don't know how they're going to do that because I'm sure that they have to go with the different tones, you know, have to make sure that they get the tone right when they do. I'm excited though because it made me feel like I was in a game.”

Graham has seen what the Pandemic Crew has done for Phillies games, parking themselves outside the outfield gates at Citizens Bank Park with noisemakers that can be heard on the field and on television and radio.

“I hate that the fans won't be a part of it but I do know if we’re at home, you’re going to hear it outside the stadium,” he said. “I feel like that's what’s going to happen, you're going to hear people outside the stadium anyway because that's just how loyal and how crazy the fans are in this town.”

And what about the potential for boos?

“You know what? I hope they don’t put that in there,” said Graham. “But that's cool, though. Sometimes, you know, we know we gotta get ourselves together when things going bad, but that's just a little more motivation depending on how you're looking at it. But that's motivation for us.”

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