Pump Up the Crowd Noise

Somethings been bothering me and its this statement from Colts GM Bill Polian:

Q: Can you comment on the allegations that the Colts artificially piped-in crowd noise at the RCA Dome Sunday?

A: I’m not sure that (Patriots Head) Coach (Bill) Belichick had any comments about crowd noise. There were a number of comments made on what I would call disreputable websites (Monday) morning. We reacted to it because we felt like it was an affront to our fans and to the integrity of our organization. I will read you a statement we issued earlier Monday. It says the following: ‘In reference to questions regarding the audio transmission of yesterday’s game, please refer to the following statement from the NFL: 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. It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium. We close with the following sentence: 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.

These's an old joke that goes, "How do you say Fuck You in Hollywood?" "Trust me." If you notice - Polian never comes out and says "We do not pump in crowd noise." What he says is that CBS has taken the blame for the "audio moment" and that he "trusts" this will put an end to the accusations. Polian was very, very careful with his wording. Its a non-denial denial if I ever heard one.

The answer seems easy to me. For the next 3 big games at the RCA Dome - have NFL technicians monitor the noise coming out of the speakers. The NFL could then compare the audio levels from those three monitored games against similar previous games. They could use the video from NFL films to do this. My guess is that when the monitored games will have noticably lower audio levels.

Officials from first the Steelers and now the Patriots have brought up the pumped up crowd noise and we get non-denial denials from the Colts. I think where there's smoke - there's fire.