Power Ranking: The best NFL home-field advantages

The NFL, and football in general, is one of the few sports where the crowd can make a real impact on the opposition. Every week you’ll see defensive players hyping up the home fans to try and make the offenses’ job as difficult as possible, and in some instances it works!

Off the back of the Dallas Cowboys’ disastrous loss to the Eagles at home, we wanted to shout out AT&T Stadium, aka Jerry World, for costing the Cowboys a touchdown due to the design of the stadium creating glare leading to Ceedee Lamb losing track of the ball. We’re not sure how relevant this is, but it’s very funny.

The Bucs have had some success in recent times after the signing of Tom Brady and the subsequent move to Baker Mayfield. Part of that is due to their stadium, where they force the away team to stand in the baking Florida sun while the home team enjoys the shade. Over the course of 60 minutes, that has to wear you down.

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Despite the suggestion Jared Goff is better in a dome, the stats don’t back that up, per Statmuse, as his statistics actually improve when he plays outside. However, given how good Detroit has become in the last few years, Ford Field has become a formidable place for opposing teams to play.

The Broncos haven’t been an especially good team in recent seasons, although look to be turning the corner this year. What they will always have, is the advantage of playing at Mile High Stadium, which is 5,280 feet above sea level, making the air thinner. This makes it harder to breathe for those not used to physical exertion in those conditions.

It feels wrong not calling the Steelers’ stadium Heinz Field anymore, while the name has changed, the home advantage has not. With one end of the stadium left almost completely open, wind flows in from the river, making passing and field goals far more difficult than in most stadiums in football.

When it comes to wind, nowhere does it better than Chicago. Solider Field has experienced 40mph wind gusts in the past, per Bear Down Blog, which renders quarterbacks and kickers essentially useless. There’s a reason the Bears have had a reputation for being a hard-nosed, physical football team over the years.

For a long time, Seahawks fans held the record for creating the most noise in the NFL, with Lumen Field reaching 137.6 decibels during the 2013 season, per Soundproof Cow. During the early 2010s, the 12th Man, as the crowd was known, was a key part in making Seattle one of the worst places to visit in the NFL.

A Sports Illustrated poll of NFL players ranked Eagles fans as the hardest to play in front of. Philly crowds are known for being brutal to opponents and their own team when things aren’t going well. If you show them any weakness, they will capitalize and make you pay. It’s another weapon in the arsenal for the Eagles.

Buffalo is geographically positioned between two of the great lakes, Erie and Ontario, and as such regularly receives huge dumps of snow. For visiting teams, travel to the game can be difficult, let alone playing in inches of fresh powder. The elements aside, Bills fans are also some of the most passionate in football.

The Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field is an intimidating place to play during the warmer months, let alone during the winter. Per Marca, Lambeau Field is the coldest stadium in the NFL and one of the snowiest, too. It takes a special sort of fan to sit through temperatures well into the negatives, but they’re made of tough stuff in Wisconsin!

Per Sports Illustrated, the Chiefs currently hold the record for the loudest home stadium, with Arrowhead reaching 142.2 back in 2014. Given their recent success, we can only assume they get close to that number week in and week out. Arrowhead is also a place of extremes, sometimes producing roasting hot games in September before turning into a bitterly cold, Lambeau-esque tundra come January. A tough place for any team to visit.

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