The Kansas City Chiefs’ home turf is known for a variety of different things from its local BBQ cuisine to its legendary tailgates.
One of the main things that GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium is known for is its defeating crowd noise. The Chiefs Kingdom made the Guinness Book of World Records for the loudest crowd roar back in 2014, reaching 142.2 decibels on “Monday Night Football” against the New England Patriots.
This level of crowd noise isn’t something new, though. Fans have always created a raucous environment for their opponents at Arrowhead Stadium. Does anyone recall the 1990 tilt with the Broncos where John Elway complained about the crowd noise so much that the referees threatened to penalize the Chiefs?
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence might have made a critical misstep. When he was asked about the crowd noise at Arrowhead Stadium, he doubted it’d be any louder than what they heard from their own crowd during the wild-card round.
“Yeah, I mean, I think obviously, the environment and the atmosphere we’re going to play in is one of, if not the best in the NFL,” Lawrence said. “I mean, I can’t imagine it’ll be much louder than our fans were here on Saturday, honestly. But that was when we were on defense, not offense. So, we played there earlier in the year, but this is a little different. It’s a playoff game, divisional round, so the stakes are higher. So, I expect them to be even crazier and (have) a more packed stadium. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to go play and make sure you communicate. That’s the one thing. We’ve got to get in and out of the huddle. We’ve got to get to the line of scrimmage so that we have time to communicate because everything naturally takes longer when it’s loud.”
While Lawrence clearly expects some things to be different compared to that wild-card game or even the Week 10 matchup, questioning the noise level at Arrowhead Stadium is only going to make things harder for the Jaguars.
Like most teams, Lawrence confirmed that Jacksonville spends time prepping for crowd noise by pumping noise through speakers at practice. He even says he’s used to the crowd noise after playing in hostile environments in college and spending two years in the NFL.
“I mean, we work it,” Lawrence said. “You know, we have the speakers, pumping noise on offense when we’re playing an away game. You get used to it through college and the last two years (in the NFL). It’s something you get used to. You’ve got to win games on the road, so you can’t let it be too much of an advantage for them. You’ve got to find ways to operate, communicate and be on the same page when it’s really, really loud. I think we’ve done a pretty good job this year on the road, communicating well. That will be key again and just making sure we’re all on the same page, going the same direction and we’ll be fine.”
Ultimately, it’ll be up to the fans in the Arrowhead Stadium stands to prove Lawrence wrong on Saturday.
