The Dolphins announced Monday that they plan to have fans at Hard Rock Stadium when they face the Bills in Week Two of the regular season.
It’s not clear at this point whether that will be the first time the Bills will play in front of fans. The team said in July that they were hopeful about having fans in what’s now called Bills Stadium, but current rules in their region of New York don’t allow for that.
On Monday, head coach Sean McDermott was asked about having fans in the stands and shared his belief that all teams should be operating under the same set of rules when it comes to having fans on hand this season.
“It is what it is. We control what we can control,” McDermott said, via Jon Scott of Spectrum News Buffalo. “I think it’s honestly ridiculous that there will be, on the surface, what appears to be a playing field that’s like that, inconsistently across the league with the different away stadiums. But it is what it is. We control what we control. That’s gotta be our mindset and that’s how we adapt.”
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer shared a similar sentiment last week and said the NFL’s current approach will lead to competitive disadvantages for teams over the course of the season. Neither coach’s comments appear to be impacting the league’s plans to move forward under the current arrangement.