There are some interesting quotes from Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank in this ESPN article about the Falcons piping in artificial crowd noise while the opposing team huddled. Here’s what Arthur had to say….
It’s not really a fine line. I think what we’ve done in 2013 and 2014 was 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. It’s obviously embarrassing but beyond embarrassing it doesn’t represent our culture and what we’re about.
One interesting line in the article is that the Falcons were informed of this in November. Of course, it didn’t break to the media until the day of the Super Bowl. A conspiracy theorist, or a rational person, would tell you the league office leaked it to take some of the heat off of Deflate-gate.
It will be interesting to see how the Falcons are penalized for this and vice-versa what happens to the Patriots for Deflate-Gate. Are these two things similar in nature and will the penalties be similar as it’s been rumored that both may lead to the teams potentially losing draft picks?
