The following quote from Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald presents an insight into the aspect of playing NFL games without fans.
“You need fans to play a game,” Donald said, via ESPN.com. “I don’t see how you could play a game without no fans, I feel like that takes out the excitement and the fun out of the game . . . I feel like the fans is what pick you up. The fans is what makes the game exciting. The fans will give you that extra juice when you’re tired and fatigued, when you make that big play and you hear 80,000 fans going crazy. That just pumps you up..”
What about the psychological affect on player performance. Though professionals they are also human. Performing in front of a crowd of 70,000 people has got to have some effect on their performance. It may be positive for some and perhaps negative for others. Some players may thrive off the crowd. They may have difficulty performing to a peak level if you take that crowd away. It could feel like a scrimmage.
Social facilitation can be defined as ‘an improvement in performance produced by the mere presence of others’. People tend to experience social facilitation for tasks that are straightforward or familiar. However, social inhibition (decreased performance in the presence of others) occurs for tasks that people are less familiar with.¹ Therefore, it follows that the presence of others will lead to a better performance for expert athletes but a worse performance for novices.
The effect also appears to depend on the type of task. The psychological effect of social facilitation causes the athlete to release more adrenaline into the body. This adrenaline rush is ideal for positions with gross motor skills that emphasize power, strength and speed above technique. It appears to be the reverse for sports that require concentration, fine motor control and finesse. The increased skill required is negatively affected by the adrenaline, which can disrupt timing, waste energy and impair cognitive function . ²
The affect also seems dependent on personality. Extrovert personalities tend to perform better with an audience, while introvert personalities tend to perform better without an audience.
How might this relate to playing football with no fans? The rookies may actually play better as they are relatively speaking novices in the NFL. This may also be better for the more skill positions such as quarterback, wide receivers and defensive backs. The positions of power and strength such as the offensive and defensive lines and running back may not play up to their accustomed level without the adrenaline boost from the crowd. The newer, quiet leader quarterbacks may have an easier environment to flourish and gain needed experience.
Hopefully we will have football with fans in the stands. But football without fans is way better than no football and we’ll gladly take it. If that happens players will need to adapt to that environment and find that extra motivation from within.
¹ Hopper, Elizabeth. “What Is Social Facilitation? Definition and Examples.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/social-facilitation-4769111.
² Jeremy Mutton, https://sportspsychology5.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/66/
