Seattle Seahawks fans cheer
Seattle NFL fans break records, eardrums as world's loudest crowd


That rumble you heard coming from the Pacific Northwest on Sunday wasn't an earthquake, windstorm or other natural disaster. It was the 68,000-plus fans at Seattle's CenturyLink Field, setting a Guinness World Record for being the loudest-ever crowd. With just over a minute left in the first quarter of the Seahawks game against the 49ers, the roar from the stands registered at 131.9 decibels, which is almost as loud as a Boeing 747. (In the fourth quarter, the crowd unofficially broke its shiny new record, reaching an ear-melting 136.6 decibels.) The buzzkillers at NBC News Health more or less said, "What exactly is the point?," offering a study that says that the home team doesn't really benefit from all of that shouting. It did yesterday, though: The 'Hawks destroyed San Francisco 29-3.