GAG RULE : Mum Will Become Word for Usually Vocal Crowds Around NFL This Season

A few years ago, the National Football League tried to force players to limit emotional displays by penalizing end-zone celebrations following touchdowns. Now the NFL wants crowds to behave as if they were watching a tennis match at Wimbledon.

This time, the NFL may have gone too far.

In the offseason, the NFL adopted a rule that will penalize home teams if their crowds become so loud that the visiting team cannot hear the signals being called by the quarterback. The referee first asks the home club to attempt to quiet the crowd. After a second instance, the referee will appeal to the crowd over the loudspeaker. Each ensuing instance will result in the home team losing a timeout. When the timeouts are gone, five-yard penalties will be assessed against the home team.

The rule was invoked several times in the pre-season, including one nationally televised Monday night game in the Superdome in which cameras focused on Cincinnati quarterback Boomer Esiason encouraging the New Orleans crowd to scream.

Before the regular season has even started, there has been talk of rescinding the rule.

“Do we think it’s fair? We think it’s crazy,” said Minnesota Executive Vice President Mike Lynn. “They were trying to take the fans out of the game, but they ended up putting them right into it.”

Lynn said impetus for the rule dates from the strike season of 1982. Immediately after the strike, Dallas lost a game in the Metrodome, during which Minnesota fans continually made it hard for the Cowboys to hear signals. He said Dallas management has pushed for the rule annually since then.

Teams that play in domes or certain outdoor stadiums with unusually loud acoustics are the ones most likely to be hurt by the rule. Washinigton’s RFK Stadium is considered one of the noisier outdoor stadiums in the NFL.

“It is a good example of things going in reverse,” said Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs last week. “They’ve had a big push to get games over and TV has been making demands to speed up the game. So now, we’re going to stand there for 15 minutes, make a joke and penalize our fans to boot.”

Two years ago at RFK, the crowd so antagonized then-rookie quarterback Chuck Long that the Lions, who had planned on running most plays out of the shotgun formation because of poor offensive-line protection, resorted to a standard pro-set. Before they gave up on the shotgun, however, the center mistakenly thought he heard the call for the snap and sailed the ball past a surprised Long.

“Our concern is: ‘What is too loud?’ ” said Indianapolis Vice President-General Manager Jim Irsay. “I have talked to (NFL Supervisor of Officials) Art McNally and half-jokingly asked him if we will have to put a decibel meter in every stadium. But my biggest concern is that a seasoned quarterback and coach can milk the rule against us. After the first time it came up, (Colts Coach) Ron Meyer came to my office and said he would rather play games on the road.”

The Colts voted against the rule, but the Saints voted for it. The position of the New Orleans management has caused some friction with Coach Jim Mora.

“The intent of the rule was not to make people sit on their hands,” said Seattle President-General Manager Tom Flores. “We are opposed to the rule, but the major concern has always been how it would be enforced. There have been instances where a quarterback could have run a play, and should have run a play, but didn’t.”

Tony Veteri, assistant supervisor of NFL officials, said that in cases where the rule was enforced during the pre-season, it generally was felt the officials carried out the rule as it was intended.

Fans in virtually every NFL city, when asked, have been overwhelmingly opposed to the rule. Irsay said management is listening.

“When you are dealing with the fans, it is difficult to try to calm their enthusiasm,” he said. “I have received letters from season-ticket holders saying if they can’t yell, they would rather sit home and watch the game on TV. ... Even when the crowd is against you on the road and yelling, that’s what makes the game great.”

In their final pre-season game Friday night, the Vikings attempted to use their scoreboard to keep the crowd under control with pleas of “Silence” and “Whispers.”

“How can you silence the crowd and tell them not to yell at all?” Flores said. “It is something the colleges have lived with for years, at games where they have 100,000 people, and the noise problem hasn’t hurt their game at all. There are certain home-field advantages in football and crowd involvement is one of them. You can’t take away those advantages -- that was not the intent.”

Although the rule’s potential for controversy likely will not be fully realized until it affects a game’s outcome, there has been talk of revoking it.

“I don’t think there is any question that it is being reviewed right now,” said Flores. “I just don’t know if anything will be done about it this season because it would take emergency legislation.”

Lynn worries about another problem.

“When we play Green Bay here, you can’t tell who is the home team because there are so many Packers fans here,” he said. “If they start yelling when Green Bay has the ball, what are the officials going to do then?”