PALM DESERT — If you're planning to see a pro football game next fall, be careful when and how you cheer, and how long. And how loud.
Noticeably noisy cheering--at the wrong time--could bring a penalty of 50 yards or more against the home team.
The owners of the 28 National Football League clubs decided that at the winter meetings at Palm Desert Tuesday, when they empowered their officiating crews to penalize teams for overzealous crowds.
Referees were authorized to confiscate timeouts or, if necessary, walk off penalties against teams whose cheering fans raise the noise level to a pitch that disrupts the other team's communications.
At the Seattle Kingdome, for instance, visiting quarterbacks have for years complained that their teammates often couldn't hear the signals in the din.
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-22/sports/sp-219_1_winter-meetings
