If left up to one of the best TV analysts in NFL history (no, not Peyton Manning), networks won’t pump in fake fan noise during anticipated crowd-less games caused by COVID-19 induced restrictions.
According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli reached out to Hall-of-Fame NFL coach and analyst John Madden, for his thoughts on what networks should do this season.
“He said, ‘When I first left the coaching profession and went to broadcasting, there was something about it that I just felt was missing and I couldn’t really put my finger on it,’” Gaudelli told Kaplan of his conversation with Madden. “He said, ‘Then I realized that I wasn’t hearing the sound that I had grown accustomed to hearing — as a player and as a coach. I never coached from the box, I coached from the field.’ He said to me, ‘Fred, you’re going to hear things that even you have never heard, so I’d be really trying to figure out how to best capture those sounds, and present them to the audience and not worry as much about artificial sound.’”
As Madden notes, the sounds of football are just as important to the game as crowd noise. For decades, NFL Films has done an amazing job of giving fans a taste of what the game sounds like at field level. Highlighting those sounds without crowd noise could present a unique viewing experience.
Two weeks ago, FOX Sports broadcaster Joe Buck said not only will fake crowd noise be used, but virtual fans will be shown in the seats. After saying “I know they’ll do it” during an interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM, he later walked back the claim.
Networks might have different thoughts on whether or not fake crowd noise should be included and it will be interesting to see if the NFL enforces a universal decision. If the league deems it better for the product to include fake crowd noise, their TV partners will follow suit.
