Can The Noise Of The Crowd Be Considered Interference?

Under ASK THE REF, it states "the team captain may request the referee to stop the game if excessive crowd noise prevents the team from putting the ball into play."

Am I misinterpreting this or is this ridiculous? I can understand if the stadium announcers and PA are making the noise but CROWD noise....come on!

Isn't that what home field advantage is? Or maybe if the home fans are making too much noise when their team is on offense then they could stop the game til the crowd settles down. I thought crowds are a part of the game.

Any thoughts? Maybe I just don't understand the rule.

.......I've only seen it happen once and that was in the NFL.......think it was in the closed end of Mile High in Denver...........and I've seen it backfire a couple of times when the opposing teams QB complained and the refs penalized the away team for delay of game........it's sort of a discretionary thing with the ref......most teams just combat it by going to a no huddle offense with a silent count.........hey score a TD and you can take the 13th man out real quick........

First of all…as the rule is worded, that’ll never happen in the CFL. Crowds are too small…'cept in Edmonton. But it SHOULD happen in towns where some loud-mouthed, washed up, former dj’s yelling “make some noise!!” because the home crowd doesn’t understand the game enough to grasp the concept of “yell on D, cheer on O”. AKA, Montreal, Calgary, and any other football “poser” town. Oops…me thinks that’ll get me in a lot of chicane…

I’ll blame it on the heat stroke of sailing while the temp is in the mid-30’s…I plead “no contest”…WAY too much fun this summer in the GT*sshole…

Sounds fair to me!

You are right. That's exactly what home field advantage should provide for you. Not only does it make it difficult for the opposing team, it also can demoralize them and motivate your team. Tends to backfire sometimes though when the noise interferes with your own snap count. And ya, there is no more pathetic silence than a boisterous crowd that is stunned by a big play from the visitors.

I don't know how it is worded in the CFL rulebook, but I remember seeing in the NFL rulebook that if the crowd noise is perceived as a game disturbance by the visiting QB, he can ask the ref to bring back the noise agression to an acceptable level. The ref then asks the defensive unit's captain to quiet its crowd. If he can't do it, then the team gets a penalty.

To the best of my knowledge... the CFL did introduce a rule back in the late 80's about crowd noise...if the crowd got above a certian decible level a 10 yard penalty would be given to the home team. They brought in that rule because of BC. In the 80's when almost every game was 50,000+ in the dome the noise would be insane... the echo in that building in unmatched. Visiting teams complained because nobody (including the center) could hear the snap count. They took that rule out a year later or so.

This rule if i'm not mistaken is about crowd noise being played through the buildings sound system while the visiting team is trying to put the ball in play... not the actual crowd making the noise. BC got hit with this penalty in one of their games last year because the ref thought the crowd noise was being pumped through the speakers... which it wasn't... it was all real people making that noise, but we still got the penalty... although i think the ref realized that after he called the penalty... because the crowd was even louder when they booed the call...lol