Football is Back

National Football League games have returned.  Finally.  For the most part, it’s TV only, as fans are not yet allowed back into the stadiums.

In taking a page – albeit a bad page – from Major League Baseball, the teams are pumping in fake crowd noise.  How ridiculous — as I pointed out a few weeks ago!

It’s comical to hear crowd reaction to a play when everyone knows it’s an empty stadium.  It reminds me of a sit-com using a laugh-track so we know when the producers think something is funny.

Watching an NFL game without the fake crowd noise would give viewers a rare chance to hear the interactions between players, coaches and officials.  It would be real.  For some, it would be refreshing to hear how classy and sportsmanlike some of the players are.  For others, it would be startling to hear how crude and disrespectful some of the players are toward other grown men.

Maybe the teams, networks and league think the sanitized version is what we’re used to so that’s what we get.

Even if it’s only partial reality, it’s live football and another step toward normalcy.