After opening the season to a crowd of 15,825 Kansas City faithful, the Chiefs traveled to Los Angeles to a fanless SoFi Stadium in Week 2. Chiefs HC Andy Reid described the experience of playing in that environment in two words when speaking to reporters on Thursday.
“It’s weird,” Reid said.
Reid wasn’t the only one who felt that way either, for Chiefs star WR Tyreek Hill, he felt it was part of the reason for his early-game struggles in Week 2.
“Playing in a stadium with no fans is like the weirdest thing ever,” Hill said following the Week 2 win over the Chargers. “It almost felt like a scrimmage, and it felt weird for me at first. That’s why in the first quarter I didn’t feel like myself. . . . I feed off the crowd that’s what I do.”
Fans are obviously a huge part of the game. Reid’s team has always been one to feed off of the crowd in Kansas City and on the road. For players like Hill, who struggled early, they’ll have to make adjustments. Reid seems to believe that after the initial eeriness faded away, it became a manageable situation.
“I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and you get out there and you can hear every penny drop there,” Reid said. “Every little sound is magnified. But, when you really get into it, you’re like focused in, you put yourself in a bit of a tunnel. You’re looking at the clocks, whether it’s the play clock or whatever and the field. Once it gets going it’s OK. It’s just that initial — coming out in a brand new stadium with nobody in it — that’s a little different.”
The Chiefs will face the challenge of playing in a fanless stadium once again when they head to M&T Bank Stadium for “Monday Night Football” against the Baltimore Ravens. What would typically be a raucous crowd for one of the biggest NFL games of the year will again be a quieted experience for both teams. Thankfully, Reid, Hill and others on the team have their experience from last week to lean on in terms of how to prepare for the upcoming match.
