NFL History; When 12th Man was Unsportsman-slike Conduct!

This is not earth shattering news. Nor is it an editorial meant to shake anything up. But I felt it was something worth passing on to Buc'em readers, on how NFL Policy toward crowd noise has changed DRASTICALLY over the last say 25 years. The discussion in question, Stadium Noise, and and how today teams like the Seahawks use it as a 12th man, yet not that long ago, as you will see in this video, a Quarterback could just stop the game if he could not hear because of crowd noise! You will see an almost comical highlight clip, that makes you wonder how on earth the game could have been played that way, when you look at it from todays standards.

Check out the video and crazy story, after the Jump.

(Con't)    

This came to my attention as I was watching some games that came in last week, and on a few occasions, the home team stadium was so loud, the Quarterback backed away from center and the refs would let them take their time going back to the line. Most of the time, fans just got louder the second or third time the QB went back to the line. The Video here captures the whole story perfectly, sometimes going on the verge of insanity.                

The video featured here, is a Monday night game, week 14 of the 1981 season, Philadelphia and Miami had a 10-10 tie in the 4th period, and Ron Jaworski backed away, as the Dolphin fans were too loud. he would do this several times as the officials would have Don Shula, the Dolphins head coach, use his hands to quiet the crowd down. The amount of times he backed away bordered on humorous or just plain stupid, especially by todays standards. 

The Monday Night Football crew actually sided with the whole thing, saying "I understand the crowds enthusiasm, but all they are doing is slowing the game" ! 

Your going to love what happens after he finally does run the play!

The incident was made big, and going into week 16, officials were told they COULD penalize the home team with unsportsmanlike conduct!!!  UNSPORTSMANLIKE!

I dont recall any actual rule changes on the subject over time, I just believe this is one of those situations where time did what a commissioner did not, and eventually we are here today, pretty much laughing at how something like this could have ever happened in the National Football League! 

Could you imagine a team going into Seattle and backing away from center saying " I cant hear"!