Mike Evans, Donovan Smith Talk Empty Superdome

August 18th, 2020

Will the Saints be able to pump eardrum-shattering crowd noise into their stadium on opening day, in order to screw up the Tampa Bay offense?

That’s unclear, but Donovan Smith seems to think it will happen.

Joe asked Smith today to commend on the potential bonus of no fans in the Superdome and the volume there that seems to screw up an offense at least twice a game.

JoeBucsFan.com: As a left tackle, how strong is the advantage to not having fans and all that noise in the Superdome on opening day?

Donovan Smith: Man, I ain’t even thought about that yet. You already know they’re going to be pumping that extra crowd noise in there anyway. So it’s going to sound just like it is if they have fans there, so at the end of the day we gotta go out there and do what we gotta do. I mean, it might be better because you might hear communication and stuff better for guys, you know, to eliminate some plays where you might have a But at the end of the day you know these teams are going to sit there and pump as much music and crowd noise they can to make the advantage for them.

To the best of Joe’s knowledge, there will be crowd noise allowed in stadiums. (It’s happening in baseball now.) But there certainly will be limits set by the NFL and the NFLPA, and that’s the big question. Frankly, Joe highly doubts any dome stadium’s current speaker system can duplicate the noise of 80,000 screaming fans without either sounding offensive or causing hearing damage.

Joe asked Mike Evans about no fans on opening day, as well.

“I kind of figured that’s how it would be,” Evans replied. “It’s gonna be different. It’s gonna take some getting used to, but at the end of the day we’re going to play and we’re gonna play hard whether there’s fans or not.”

12 Responses to “Mike Evans, Donovan Smith Talk Empty Superdome”

  1. Sarasota Garey Says:

    It doesn’t seem fair to be able to pump in crowd noise, it should be restricted to a certain level for all stadiums.

  2. thisisouryear!! Says:

    I wonder if there is any chance Arians thinks Gabbert could be the QB of the future after Brady. For Gabbert, this has to be the best thing that could happen to him, learning from the goat.

  3. Joe Says:

    I wonder if there is any chance Arians thinks Gabbert could be the QB of the future after Brady.

    Joe doesn’t think Arians will be around after Brady.

  4. Perimeter Blocker Says:

    If noise is allowed it seems like this could be easily manipulated and corrupted. There were problems in the past with fans in the stands with domes adding more noise…

  5. DoooshLaRue Says:

    Well……. at the end of the day man, Donovan ain’t be sounding too educated.

  6. 813bucboi Says:

    kickers should be happy….

    GO BUCS!!!!

  7. TampaTown Says:

    Is there any word on the maximum volume level teams are allowed to pump into their stadiums? Seems like there should be an exact number that applies to every team.

  8. PSL Bob Says:

    It would seem the NFL will have to set some maximum decibel level. And to be fair their should be some noise when the home team’s offense is on the field. Can’t have ear splitting noise when the Bucs offense is out there and crickets when the Saints offense is on the field.

  9. Rod Munch Says:

    I’d expect the NFL to set a max decibel level – and further I’d expect them to probably enhance it on TV. I will say with hockey I think they’ve done a great job with the crowd noise where it feels natural. They swell the crowd noise with the action a bit which adds to what you’re watching without it feeling too fake.

  10. Colonel Angus Says:

    Saints and Seahawks are known to pump crowd noise through their speakers during normal times.

  11. Issac haggins Says:

    Thisisouryear,,,,,, did you see him play last year , he had no business on an nfl roster ,,, so so so many choices other than Gabbert . Gotta give B A credit on improving Lichts talent evaluating but this clearly a mistake keeping Gabbert !!

  12. Pok Says:

    Hey Mike- I’ll be watching and screaming in my house in VA scaring the baby and the dog.