Promotion

Noise vs Emotion

By Tony Ventrella

It seems everyone east of the Mississippi picked the Redskins to beat the Seahawks in this wild card game. It was going to be noise vs emotion. The Redskins were riding the emotional lift offered by the memory of fallen teammate Sean Taylor. The Seahawks were going to be beneficiaries of the 12th man, the loudest fans in the National Football League.

There’s no doubt the fans did their job. A sound meter on the sidelines recorded a decibel level of over 112. If you stand behind a 737 jet engine you’ll get a sound blast worth about 120. I’m no expert, but I’d suggest you don’t actually want to try that; you could get hurt your ears and possibly other parts of your body too. It does give you a little perspective though. It does suggest that the Seahawks do indeed have a great home field advantage.

Former Seahawks offensive lineman Pete Kendall can vouch for that.

“It was loud enough that we needed to go silent. There were times when I couldn’t hear Todd and I was standing right next to him.”

Advantage Seahawks.

As far as the emotional ride the Redskins took this season that gave them an advantage up until this afternoon.

“I’m definitely proud of how the guys stepped up,” said Clinton Portis. “You never saw any finger pointing all season long. To get that in a team there were a whole bunch of guys taking and accepting responsibility.”