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NFL to let QB's call signals via radios....


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NFL May Muffle Fans, Let Quarterbacks Call Signals Via Radio

2006-11-02 00:06 (New York)

Steven Suflas knows his loud mouth helps the Philadelphia Eagles, the National Football League team his family started cheering for in 1947. Since Lincoln Financial Field opened in south Philadelphia in 2003, fan noise has helped confuse visiting teams into committing 80 penalties when players couldn't hear their quarterbacks' commands at the start of a play. That's almost twice as many as called against the Eagles.

Now Suflas says the NFL is about to muffle him. In April, the league plans to test a radio system in its European minor league that broadcasts the quarterback's signals into his teammates' helmets -- over the chants of a hostile crowd.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the new technology, developed for the U.S. military by league sponsor Motorola Inc., might reduce the length of games by cutting down on false-start and delay-of-game penalties. Suflas, 55, a partner in the Philadelphia law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll LLP, says the NFL wants to do away with home-field advantage.

``If that's how they're going to play the game, tell the fans to stay home and play in a television studio,'' Suflas said. ``Why go? They charge us enough money, then they say we're irrelevant.''

The helmet radio first appeared in 1956, when Paul Brown, Hall of Fame coach of the Cleveland Browns, tested one in an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions. The device lasted three more games before then-Commissioner Bert Bell banned it, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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i was thinking the same....

Seriously, the nfl should just give the colts a lombardi trophy and stop trying to make all the rules advantageous for choke manning and crew.

As crazy as this sounds, I think I'm rooting for the Pats to kick the livin' sh!t out of the colts on sunday. I know, blasphemy, but I'm really sick of that team.

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Seriously, the nfl should just give the colts a lombardi trophy and stop trying to make all the rules advantageous for choke manning and crew.

As crazy as this sounds, I think I'm rooting for the Pats to kick the livin' sh!t out of the colts on sunday. I know, blasphemy, but I'm really sick of that team.

Try living in Indianapolis. I just moved out here in June and already hate it due to just the Colts. Luckily I will be moving down to Cincinnati in a couple months or I would probably go insane.

And I dont know about Peyton Manning, but my laser, rocket arm came with super-sonic hearing.

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While I don't like the idea, I disagree that it takes away home field advantage. Baseball does not require communications to the point that the crowd noise hinders it, yet there is obviously a big homefield advantage still. Pretty much the same for NBA and NHL. The crowd noise doesn't really hurt the visiting team in communications, it just hurts for the fact that there are thousands of fans cheering against you. Plain and simple. That edge will still be there.

The problem of something like this is it allows the QB to communicate directly with his playmakers, possibly even during the play. THAT would have a huge impact on the game.

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