Poll: Toughest NFL Stadiums to Play in?

upstater1 said:

I'm wondering if a fan who did NOT vote for Denver has ever been to Denver or that area.

I felt the atmospheric effects just walking up the big hill to campus in Boulder. And I was in my best shape back then.

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Their advantage borders on being an unfair one.

Loud crowds, different climates, etc are reasonable advantages to have to overcome, but that thin air is a different animal.

Ryan Clark was physically unable to play there, and we all remember the images of Gronk being worked on on the sidelines last year.

Whichever venue has the best team.

Galeb said:

Denver. No other team is even close.

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I agree with that sentiment as a Pats fan, but I think a pretty strong argument can be made for Gillette if you are a visiting team and as long as TB12 and BB reside there.

fair catch fryar said:

I agree with that sentiment as a Pats fan, but I think a pretty strong argument can be made for Gillette if you are a visiting team and as long as TB12 and BB reside there.

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The question isn't about the quality of the team, as that changes over time. The question is about which stadium is the toughest to play in. The answer is both clear and simple. The thin air up in Denver is a much bigger advantage than what any other stadium has.

For the Pats, it is Denver. For everyone else, it is Foxboro. No one has the home winning percentage as the Pats do.

Statistically, it's been Foxboro. I believe the Pats have the best home record there in recent years by a wide margin.

For those saying Denver - consider that the Broncos have lost there multiple times there in big games recently, and the Pats games there have been very close. Whereas whenever Denver comes to Foxboro, they get emasculated.

**** Denver with Peyton Manning's bottle of Budweiser.

In fact **** that place with all of his bottles of Budweiser.

upstater1 said:

I'm wondering if a fan who did NOT vote for Denver has ever been to Denver or that area.

I felt the atmospheric effects just walking up the big hill to campus in Boulder. And I was in my best shape back then.

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I couldn't agree more (I lived in Boulder for two years), anybody who doesn't think the Denver stadium give the biggest stadium edge to a team (particularly when you add how rabid the Denver fans are) just hasn't been there, IMHO.

Rob0729 said:

For the Pats, it is Denver. For everyone else, it is Foxboro. No one has the home winning percentage as the Pats do.

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I was interpreting the question as which stadium give the biggest edge to the team, apart from the quality of the team (of course the Pats have no peer when it comes to long term excellence).

It's Denver unless you're counting stadiums with pumped in crowd noise then it might be a close call.

zydecochris said:

I was interpreting the question as which stadium give the biggest edge to the team, apart from the quality of the team (of course the Pats have no peer when it comes to long term excellence).

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I interpreted it as the hardest place for a visiting team to get a W. Foxboro is it. We have learned that it is partly about the stadium because teams are so paranoid that the Pats are cheating that the Pats are in their heads. That may be a better home field advantage than a place like Seattle that has deafening crowd noise.

No, toughest stadiums takes into account the crowd noise, elements and location that add to the opposing teams challenge in winning a game in that particular stadium, disregarding how talented the team is that plays at that particular venue. Gillette can get pretty nasty with the snowy. windy and cold conditions from Dec to Jan. The problem with Gillette stadium is the crowd noise is not consistently loud like other venues.

I cannot remember the last time denver had a sub .500 home record season. They have had a winning home record most of the time, even with some pretty mediocre teams. Denver also has one of the most successful home records since the AFL-NFL merger.

Whenever a thread hangs around the top of the board for a week, as this one has done, it usually means there's a lot of interest in it.

The poll title is "Current toughest NFL Stadiums to play in?" It doesn't say "for the Pats."

So, I looked back at the Home records of the teams mentioned in the poll for the last two seasons, including the Post Season, as my own arbitrary definition of "current." My theory was that there is no better indicator of how tough a place is to play than the number of games the "other guys" win on your turf.

The answer is...drum roll...

New England. The Pats only lost two home games over the last two seasons, one of them a meaningless game against the Bills in Week 17.
Denver and Green Bay tie for second with three home losses.
KC and Seattle are next with four home losses each.
The Steelers lost five at home.

The other teams don't belong on the list (unless, you're New England and you fear going to Miami...). The Bears actually had a better Road record the last two seasons, losing 13 at home. The Saints and Dolphins each lost nine at home.

That makes the loss to the Eagles this year all the more aggravating to me. I mean, the only game we lost at Home in two years cost us Home Field advantage against Peyton on what was, as I recall, a cold and snowy day in Foxboro...the kind of day that Peyton hates.

Historically- KC

Recently-Seattle

For the Patriots-Denver

Denver. Even brady isnt the same guy up there. Thats all the proof i need

i go with DEN too

I agree with the sentiment about Denver... but Seattle has to be in the conversation, it a very loud place that seems to have effected more than one team.

I did used to get a kick out of this guy -

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Since the question is about the stadium and not the opponent, I would disagree with some about Gillette. The reason for the won-loss record has almost everything to do with the team on the sidelines rather than loudness, hostile environment, elements, etc.

To me the toughest place for a visiting team to play has to be Denver, due to the difficulty/impossibility of adapting to the change in altitude.

Next would be Arrowhead; even when the Chiefs were not very good that stadium rocked. If you hypothetically adjust for how well a team is performing (since good teams obviously draw more/louder fans than mediocre teams), then KC is way up there. Although the architecture at Century Link retains sound better than anywhere else, I can't help but wonder how rowdy it will be if/when Seattle is an average/below average team.