FOXBOROUGH - The volume on the Patriots' rivalry with the Indianapolis Colts got turned up a notch, but according to the NFL, the crowd noise at the RCA Dome during New England's 24-20 victory Sunday did not.
During the CBS telecast of the game, there was a conspicuous audio glitch, a repeating crowd-noise crescendo, on the first play of the fourth quarter, a 14-yard pass from Tom Brady to Randy Moss. A clip highlighting the irregularity was posted on YouTube, and according to a
The league released a statement yesterday, attributing the unusual audio to a CBS production problem.
"CBS has informed us that the unusual audio moment heard by fans during the Patriots-Colts game was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast," said the statement, which was disseminated by league spokesman Greg Aiello. "It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium."
Following the release of the NFL's statement, the Colts, who were accused of fan high-fidelity by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005, released a statement as well.
"We trust this will put an end to the ridiculous and unfounded accusations that the Colts artificially enhanced crowd noise at the RCA Dome in any way," said the statement.
Patriots spokesman Stacey James said the Patriots never asked for an investigation and don't intend to pursue the matter.
"We did not register any formal complaint nor do we intend to," said James. "Conversations with league officials are not uncommon. That doesn't qualify as a formal complaint. That's when you formally request in writing a matter you have concerns over, and we're not doing that."
When asked yesterday about the Colts pumping up the volume, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, "Well, it's always loud. It's definitely loud when you're behind by 10 points in the fourth quarter, I can tell you that."
But that wasn't the end of the sound furor because while Colts fans were at full blast - with or without audio enhancement - the Patriots offense was operating on mute.
When asked if he noticed any audio irregularities during the game, Belichick said the Patriots' coach-to-quarterback communication system was "basically useless."
