Pro Football / Bob Oates : We Haven’t Heard Last of Noise Over Penalties for Unruly Fans

Since, at least, the year that pro games were first played before packed throngs at Seattle’s Kingdome, National Football League players and coaches have distinguished between two kinds of crowd behavior there and in other domes and stadiums.

They’ve heard:

--Loud cheering to encourage the home team at appropriate intervals.

--Loud cheering to disrupt the visiting team’s plans and procedures.

In the first instance, the noise can be described as part of team sports today in America.

In the second, the noise is plainly designed to provide an unfair advantage.

When the other side is threatening to score, the whole point of thunderous cheering is to win the game by making it difficult or impossible for the visitors to hear the signals.

Why should the NFL put up with that?

It shouldn’t, of course. And this year, league officials are doing something about it. They’re penalizing the home team--with a loss of timeouts and, if necessary, yardage--when the din interferes with the other team’s right to play the game properly.

First reaction, nationally, has been nothing short of stunning. Most television announcers have said they are against the penalties. National polls show that many fans condone this kind of cheating.

That is irresponsible. In football or any other game, there’s no place for unsportsmanlike conduct, either on the playing field or in the stands.

The argument in the league today centers on the problem of how best to enforce the new crowd-noise rule, which is bound to be controversial if the home team loses a touchdown as a result of fan behavior.

The question:

When visiting players are a threat to score in a noisy stadium, should their quarterback be allowed to back away from the line of scrimmage any time he thinks he can’t be heard?

Or should he be required to stay in position--with the clock running the prescribed 30 or 45 seconds--leaving it up to the referee to decide whether the crowd is too noisy?

In last month’s exhibition games, some quarterbacks were accused of taking advantage of the rule, seeking penalties even after the roar of the crowd subsided.

“They’ve been milking it,” former NFL coach Sid Gillman said. “The officials should keep the clock going. If at the end of 30 seconds, or 45 seconds, there’s no play, the referee gets two choices. He can call the crowd for unfair interference, or he can call the quarterback for delaying the game.”

So far, only home teams have been penalized. One of them lost all three of its timeouts plus five yards after four consecutive guilty calls against its noisy fans.

“They weren’t that noisy the last time or two,” Gillman said. “The quarterback should have been penalized.”

Does the NFL have a good reason for trying to quiet unruly crowds with a rule that penalizes blameless teams?

Art McNally, the league’s supervisor of officials, said from his New York office:

“Let me make these points:

“First, in the interests of fair play, the visiting team should have a chance to play its game.

“Second, it’s a lot noisier on the field than it is in the press box, where the (TV) announcers sit.

“Third, if the new rule is given a chance to work, it will work. When football fans understand that disruptive behavior will only hurt their own ballclub, they’ll quit trying to (do so).

“Enthusiasm is wonderful. The (NFL) isn’t against enthusiasm. We’re for it--as long as it doesn’t rob the other team of a fair shot.”

Wouldn’t it be fairer to the home team to put a time clock on the visiting quarterback?

“No, it isn’t our job to put undue pressure on the quarterback,” McNally said. “It’s the (home) fans who are out of line. The referee shouldn’t be intimidating the (visiting) quarterback when others are (to blame). We’ll never say, ‘Run the play now.’ If we did, if they fumbled, it could be the officials’ fault.

“The referee doesn’t have to (intimidate) the quarterback to control him. Our procedures are plain and simple:

“If there’s too much noise, the referee lifts his arm above his head as a signal to the fans that they’re (in trouble). If the referee points his hand forward, it means, ‘Run the play, quarterback. There isn’t that much noise.’

“The fans will quickly comprehend after a (penalty or two) that noisy behavior can be (counterproductive).”

That is the hope.

The Raiders might have had trouble winning exhibitions last month, but they did one thing right.

Their games were sensibly analyzed on television by color announcer Al LoCasale, who in his other life is a Raider executive.

There was some bias--it isn’t easy for a true-believing Raider to knock a Raider--but on balance, LoCasale and Jay Randolph of St. Louis gave California listeners a better picture than they often get from network announcers.

In the game of the week, Troy Aikman will take his show to Bourbon Street when the Dallas Cowboys begin the regular season Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, who can’t afford to start the year with a defeat on a day when the Rams should be breezing in Atlanta.

Are the Cowboys as good as they seemed in the exhibition schedule? Is Aikman so gifted that he can instantly play with the skill of a veteran? Has the new coach, Jimmy Johnson, adapted already to the NFL?

The answers were all in the affirmative last week when Aikman passed another test, surviving a working-over by the rough-house Houston Oilers and mounting the winning field goal drive in a 30-28 victory.

“(Aikman) played like a veteran,” Houston defensive end William Fuller said. “We kept hitting him, we couldn’t rattle him.”

Sacked four times, the former UCLA quarterback was also punished after most throws as the belligerent Oilers, who drew four roughness penalties, initiated him with a couple of late hits. He went the last three quarters with a split lip.

“We’ve got to keep people off him better,” Johnson said. “He can’t go through this during the regular season.”

At the start of a new season, here are some things to think about:

--With 85 yards against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Eric Dickerson of the Indianapolis Colts could make it 10,000 career yards in 91 games. The record-holder, Jim Brown, reached 10,000 in his 98th game.

--The AFC is entering its 20th season as the NFL’s dominant conference. AFC teams lead NFC teams, 444-388-8, in the interconference games since 1970. Although the NFC has won the last five Super Bowls, and seven of the last eight, the AFC has won or tied the interconference series in each of the last six seasons.

--Four of the five top-rated passers of all time are active AFC quarterbacks: Dan Marino of Miami, Boomer Esiason of Cincinnati, Dave Krieg of Seattle and Ken O’Brien of the New York Jets. The champion is an NFC passer, Joe Montana of the 49ers.

--Under their former coach, Bill Walsh, the 49ers won more regular-season NFL games than any other 1980s team. Their record in this decade is 90-45-1. They also have the best 1980s road record, 47-20-1 (.699).

--One Walsh legacy is that the 49ers have avoided being shut out in 178 consecutive games.

--Marino hasn’t been sacked in his last 11 games, an NFL record, while throwing more than 500 passes.

--O’Brien’s interception rate is 2.51, for each 100 passes, the NFL’s all-time record.

--Coaching changes: Dan Henning to San Diego, where he started as a quarterback in 1964; George Seifert to San Francisco; Marty Schottenheimer to Kansas City; Bud Carson to Cleveland; Jimmy Johnson to Dallas, and Wayne Fontes to Detroit.