The Atlanta Falcons will be stripped of a fifth-round Draft pick in 2016 and fined $350,000 for playing artificial crowd noise in their stadium. The Falcons president, Rich McKay, is also be suspended from the NFL’s competition committee for three months.
The Falcons piped noise into the Georgia Dome over the last two years in order to disrupt opposition teams calling plays in the huddle. The NFL said the Falcons’ former director of team marketing, Roddy White, had been responsible for the artifical noise but McKay still bore some blame.
“Our review also determined that Falcons ownership and senior executives, including team president Rich McKay, were unaware of Mr White’s use of an audio file with artificial crowd noise,” the NFL said in a statement. “However, Mr McKay, as the senior club executive overseeing game operations, bears some responsibility for ensuring that team employees comply with league rules. As a result, Mr McKay will be suspended from the Competition Committee beginning 1 April. He may petition Commissioner Goodell for reinstatement to the committee no sooner than 30 June.”
Last month the team’s owner, Arthur Blank, acknowledged his team were in the wrong.
“Anything that affects the competitive balance and fairness on the field, we’re opposed to, as a league, as a club and as an owner,” said Blank. “It’s obviously embarrassing, but beyond embarrassing, it doesn’t represent our culture and what we’re about.”
Whether or not the tactic helped the Falcons is debatable. Silent counts can help teams communicate amid noise from opposing fans, while the Falcons record in Atlanta last season was 3-4 (one of their “home” games played in London).
The NFL took Draft picks off the New Orleans Saints in 2012 and 2013 over the bounty scandal, while the New England Patriots forfeited a first-round pick in 2008 over “Spygate”.
The Falcons were not the only team punished by the NFL on Monday. The Cleveland Browns were fined $250,000 and their general manager Ray Farmer was suspended for four games after it was found that he texted team officials from the press box last season.
