Controversy in the Patriots/Colts Aftermath
“No, we can’t run up the score, Peyton. The game’s over. Honest. You can take your helmet off now…”
Make no mistake about it; the Patriots and Colts cannot stand each other, at least from a front office standpoint. Michael Silver highlighted some of the “gamesmanship” between the two teams in this article last week, and less than 24 hours after the Patriots 24-20 victory in Indianapolis, they’re at it again. Specifically, the Patriots are lodging a complaint with the NFL regarding some perceived shenanigans at the RCA Dome.
Just after the game, Patriots President Jonathan Kraft asked NFL Vice President of Security Milt Ahlerich to investigate the possibility that the Colts piped in or played additional crowd noise during the game. In the Patriots defense, they are not the first team to accuse the Colts of this ridiculous sounding violation of league rules. Having said that, it’s a damn good thing they won the game; otherwise that would sound a lot like whining to many fans…
Earlier today, the internets were all abuzz with this story, especially since you can actually HEAR a weird artificial sound emanating from the crowd at the 2:25 mark of this NFL highlight video. My initial reaction was to jump in and post an extremely professional headline; something like, “COLTS CHEAT! COLTS CHEAT! Cough up that 1st Round pick you @#$&-ers!” (You know, something to rival my mature headlines from the past) Fortunately, I’m learning that sometimes it pays of to wait on a story like this, and see if there’s a reasonable explanation behind it.
In this case, there is, as Boston.com’s Mike Reiss reports:
Following up on the crowd noise issue in the RCA Dome, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello passes along the following:
“CBS has informed us that the unusual audio moment heard by fans during the Patriots-Colts telecast was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast. It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium.”
So it appears that the Colts fans are simply very good at cheering on their team. And for you Patriots fans that were storming the Colts fan forums and message boards trumpeting these accusations, well, now might be a good time to change your screen name & avatar.
However, the Colts still have another controversy on their hands. During a routine search of the stadium grounds during the game, Ahlerich found head referee John Parry’s duffel bag with the following contents and note:
Remember, if Hobbs so much as breathes on Reggie Wayne, it’s a flag.
- Polian
I’m just kidding. At least I think I’m just kidding…
New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, NFL, game of the year, crowd noise
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