You think there’s still some lingering bad blood between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts?
The two franchises traded regular season wins (not so much in the postseason) throughout the heydays of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
But quarterbacks never actually play against each other … meaning Manning was often matched up with the defensive-minded prowess of legendary ex-Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Manning and Belichick always had a healthy respect for each other, given that both are total football junkies, and in their respective retirements — though Belichick’s ears likely perked up when he heard that the New York Jets had just fired head coach Robert Saleh Tuesday — have fostered a respectful relationship.
Given that, it should come as little surprise that Belichick was invited onto Manning’s “Manningcast” simulcast of the Monday Night Football game between the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.
The alternative broadcast sees Peyton and his brother Eli Manning (another thorn in Belichick’s coaching side) watching football with various guests.
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It’s meant to recreate the vibe of watching football with your buddies, except in this case, your buddies are two Hall of Famers and Eli Manning.
And buddies rib each other — even Hall of Fame buddies.
Belichick did just that on Monday’s broadcast, when asked a question by Peyton Manning.
You can watch the viral moment below:
Bill Belichick called out the Colts for pumping in fake crowd noise against the Pats 😭 @EliManning pic.twitter.com/9sKDLpVBT3
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 8, 2024
Manning asked Belichick how he would simulate crowd noise to create the effect of a hostile road environment during practice. The multi-time Super Bowl champion coach responded with a dig at Manning’s Colts.
“Well, I’ll tell you, Peyton,” Belichick began. “The crowd noise there at Arrowhead [Stadium, home of the Chiefs] wasn’t as bad as when you guys piped in music at the RCA Dome [where the Colts used to play].”
A bemused Peyton and Eli Manning smirked at Belichick’s quick wit, with the elder Peyton admitting, “Okay, okay,” but Belichick wasn’t done.
“And then when the music skipped, and then when the dome crowd noise skipped, that’s how we knew you were pumping it in,” Belichick said.
Belichick was echoing a common accusation that the Colts used to pipe in extra noise to make things harder for the Patriots during their old rivalry days — an accusation, it’s worth mentioning, that Manning did not deny in the viral clip.
The then- and current-owner of the Colts, Jim Irsay, did deny those allegations, however, in an X social media post that went up the morning after Belichick’s comments went viral.
Reminder…”piped-in crowd noise” myth —1000% fictional. And the “skip” was TV broadcast. We get it, though…visiting teams couldn’t believe that 60,000 in an intimate domed stadium could make that much deafening noise! 👋🙂 A credit to Colts fans.
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) October 8, 2024
“Reminder…’piped-in crowd noise’ myth —1000% fictional,” Irsay posted Tuesday. “And the ‘skip’ was TV broadcast. We get it, though…visiting teams couldn’t believe that 60,000 in an intimate domed stadium could make that much deafening noise! A credit to Colts fans.”
While Manning clearly took Belichick’s remarks for the joke that they were, Irsay clearly did not — and that’s because there’s probably still a lot of bad blood lingering between the two franchises due to one, major, lingering incident.
After Peyton Manning had moved on to play with the Denver Broncos, the Colts and star quarterback Andrew Luck found themselves in a familiar position during the 2014 AFC Championship game, when the team was matched up with Brady and the Patriots.
The game itself was hardly noteworthy, given how much of a one-sided bludgeoning it was. The Patriots crushed the Colts and never let up en route to a 45-7 shellacking.
But after the game, the Colts complained about the air pressure of the footballs, leading to the entire calamitous scandal known as “Deflategate,” where the Patriots were punished for allegedly lowering the air pressure in the footballs below regulation.
That scandal is still an oft-repeated criticism of both Belichick and Brady, despite the near-decade it’s been since that game — and it was no doubt on the mind of the notoriously surly Belichick when he brought up the Colts fake-noise accusations on Monday.
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