Fartgate erupts from NFL on Fox broadcast booth

The NFL is back, and while the games don’t mean much yet, we might already have our best fart gate of the season.

The Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans were featured in a nationally televised game on Fox Sunday night. Usually, the biggest debate to come from a preseason game has to do with a quarterback battle, but the biggest debate from Sunday night’s game should center around a strange noise erupting from the booth. Because while Week 2 of the NFL preseason rarely delivers many notable moments, the national Fox broadcast caught our attention with what sounded like a fart.

Yes, it was a nationally televised NFL game for Fox in prime time, but no, Tom Brady wasn’t on the call. Instead, it was Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma in the booth for Fox. Late in the second quarter, Vilma began discussing competition at the wide receiver spot for Tennessee, highlighting second-year player Chimere Dike trying to separate himself.

Fartgate? pic.twitter.com/eeq3adotTw

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“How valuable can you be,” Vilma said as a strange rumbling noise overtook the booth and usurped what he was saying.

It almost sounds too clear to be a real fart. So clear that it sounds more like a fart machine than any sort of authentic flatulence. But as someone who has heard a lot of on-air farts from listening to Howard Stern over the years, microphones can have a funny way of making real farts sound fake.

If it was a real fart, it couldn’t have been Vilma. It’s equally hard to imagine Kenny Albert leaning into a fart like that on live television, especially that close to the half. If something like that is brewing in the booth, just wait the 26 seconds until halftime.

So who did it? Maybe someone from the production staff accidentally walked by a hot mic as they prepared for the half. The more important question might be, what is Fox feeding their staff before a broadcast?