Arthur Blank: Pumping in Fake Stadium Noise Was "Wrong"

According to Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press (behind a paywall) interviewed Falcons owner Arthur Blank about Decibacle, Phantom Fans, Noisegate, or whatever you wish to term the controversy. Just this weekend it was reported that the Falcons were being investigated for pumping in fake crowd noise when their defense was on the field.

In the interview, things did not sound too bad.

"We've gotten some information from the league but until we read the full report and until they publish their findings, we can't be totally clear," said Blank. "We've talked to a lot of people and we've cooperated and we'll be anxious to read the report."

Well OK. His opinion will come in due time after the full investigation results are put together and analyzed. We probably will not hear about again until... the very same interview.

"It's not really a fine line," Blank told the AP. "I think what we've done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong. Anything that affects the competitive balance and fairness on the field, we're opposed to, as a league, as a club and as an owner. It's obviously embarrassing but beyond embarrassing it doesn't represent our culture and what we're about."

No word if Artie has ordered a guilty Georgia Dome sound technician to be sent on a slow vacation down the Chattahoochee River. Blank is judge, jury, and executioner in that dome.

The investigation results were apparently not very ambiguous and Blank sounds as if he is bracing for punishment. Plenty of other teams have been accused or found to have pumped in fake crowd noise into their stadium, but did any of them have a worse defense than the Atlanta Falcons they have not been punished with anything as extreme as a loss of draft picks.

If the punishments are escalating, Falcons fans may need to cross their fingers the team can get away with their entire 2015 draft.