The 12th Man: Fan Noise in the Contemporary National Football League

• In Event: Communities of Sound: Affect and Aesthetics in the Sonic Domain

Abstract

On January 8, 2011, fans of the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks—an exceptionally passionate group known as the 12th Man—responded to a game-winning touchdown with a literally earth-shaking celebration that registered on nearby seismographs. The 12th Man’s characteristically disruptive sound fashions an intensely affective space specific to Seattle’s CenturyLink Field. The NFL and its media partners now use this unique din to advertise the singular thrills that come with high-priced stadium seats and to enhance television audiences’ viewing experiences. This article uses the 12th Man’s signature noise to theorize how fans, sound, space, the NFL, and sports media have recently mediated and amplified one another. It specifically employs the 12th Man’s sonic relations to fandom, space, games, and television to demonstrate how the NFL has shifted from regulating fan noise as an unwelcome interruption to cultivating it as a resource that enhances games, in stadia and on TV.

Authors

• Travis Vogan, U of Iowa

• Mack Hagood, Miami University