Hey Football Fans, Quiet Down A Little

According to an opinion piece in a major newspaper, you really shouldn't cheer so loudly at games. The other team can't hear their quarterback's signals, and that's not fair.

Arthur Schafer is (and say this next part with as much righteous disdain as you can muster) a professor of philosophy at the University of Manitoba. Well la-di-da. But he's also a football fan! And he's tired of going to see his beloved Blue Bombers, and hearing his golf claps and "right on, chaps" drowned out by the roar of 30,000 boors.

[T]here was a bitter taste left by the unsportsmanlike conduct of the Winnipeg fans. When Saskatchewan had the ball on offence, the Winnipeg fans, encouraged by some of the players, set up such a wall of noise that the players couldn't hear the quarterback's signals. That's cheating, isn't it?

...

Preventing your opponents from hearing their quarterback's signal-calling is taking unfair advantage. When the minister lauds fans for being "the 13th man" on the field, what he is saying is: It's okay to tilt the playing field against your opponent if that will help to win. Is that the message that he or the team or the fans want to send to the world?

Yes! For god's sake, yes! This man misses the entire point of football, which is to march past the 55 yard line, and score lots of rouges, or something. But perhaps he's right. Perhaps Blue Bomber fans should keep their supportive yaps shut, and stick to building world record beer snakes.

BONUS CFL FOOTAGE: what those fans are cheering about.

It's okay for football fans to cheer. But not so loudly [Globe And Mail]