Dome, Sweet Dome

Back in the 1998 season there was a myriad of complaints from various NFL teams that the Vikings were manufacturing artificial crowd noise as a deterrent for opposing offenses.

The racket helped rattle Arizona quarterback Jake Plummer into three turnovers that led to 17 points for the Vikings in their 41-21 victory in the first playoff game that season. The decibel level wasn't the difference for Minnesota, its offense was, but it helped. At one point just before kickoff, Cardinals tackle Lomas Brown and some teammates tried to communicate by screaming while standing next to each other. They couldn't hear.

Neither could LeRoy Hoard or Robert Smith, who were side by side on the Vikings' side of the field. Plummer said there were times during the game when he couldn't hear offensive coordinator Marc Trestman, who was speaking directly into his helmet from the coaches booth via microphone. "With the loudspeakers and crowd noise, our communication was messed up all day," Arizona center Aaron Graham said. "It was almost non-existent. It forced us into trying things we haven't tried before."

The most annoying, and some say most disrupting part of the dome noise, is the roar through the speaker system. The Vikings blast heavy metal music and other canned noise into the arena to help whip the fans into a frenzy.

The Packers complained loudly about the piped-in noise after their 28-14 loss at the dome Nov. 22, 1998. Their biggest beef was about on-field speakers the Vikings say they use to channel the music to the cheerleaders.

Then Vikings vice president of business operations Rand Gottlieb contends the team stayed within league rules for stadium noise, including turning off all artificial sound when the opposing offense broke the huddle.

But that's when the fans took over, with 64,000 screaming as the quarterback slips behind center. That helped the Vikings go 9-0 at home in the 1998 season, winning by an average score of 36-13.

That's the dome-field advantage, something the Minnesota Twins used to win World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.

Now comes another complaint. A league source has leaked that the Minnesota Vikings have been accused of pumping fake fan noise into the Metrodome during one or more of their three 2004 home games.

In theory, the NFL is supposed to monitor, and prevent, this kind of stuff.

The complaint is that at least one of the teams the Vikings played at home this season believes that tape recordings of fans yelling and screaming have been played in the stadium at key moments to augment the natural din created in the domed stadium.

So with the Twins it is the air currents that can be changed in the late innings to work against the opposing team. With the Vikings it is artificial crowd noise that is winning the games.

I don’t know. When my voice comes back from cheering too loudly at last weeks win over the Tennessee Titans, maybe I’ll have something to say about it.

Posted by maasx003 at October 28, 2004 2:24 PM