Matt Ryan had jokes when asked about teams pumping in fake crowd noise in the event there are no fans in 2020
With coronavirus spreading around the United States and the world, it's been far from a normal year. It's looking more likely things will not be completely the same in the NFL this fall either.
The NFL has insisted that crowds will be in the stands for the 2020 season, but on Tuesday, a reporter offered Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan a hypothetical situation in which instead of fans, the NFL allowed teams to pump in fake crowd noise in an effort to keep the same gameday atmosphere with social distancing. Smartly, Ryan very politely declined to offer a comment on whether the league should make an exception for fake crowd noise this season.
"I'm not sure our organization should be talking about pumping in crowd noise," Ryan said with a slight laugh during a video conference with media members on Tuesday. "I think we had a small issue with that a little while ago."
"Whatever they want to do is cool with me, I'll be ready to go."
The NFL fined the Falcons $350,000 and usurped a 2016 fifth-round draft choice from the team as punishment for pumping in crowd noise for home games during the 2014 season. Team President Rich McKay was also suspended three months from the Competition Committee.
According to reports, McKay was unaware of the violation. Through an investigation, the NFL found former Falcons director of event marketing Roddy White directly responsible for pumping in the crowd noise.
Good for Ryan for remembering that bit of embarrassing Falcons history to avoid sounding tone deaf in front of reporters on Tuesday.
Join The Falcon Report community!
Follow The Falcon Report on Twitter.
Like The Falcon Report on Facebook.
Subscribe to The Dirty Birds Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
