"Audio-Gate", and the issue of whether the Colts pumped artificial crowd noise into Sunday's game, sounds as if it is not going to have the same staying power as "Spy-Gate", the Patriots videotape controversy from earlier this season.
The issue surfaced in cyberspace on Monday, when football fans listened to audio of an Indianapolis crowd that piped up when
Tom Brady was at the line of scrimmage and died down once the play was completed.
CBS-TV and the NFL said the mistake was not the Colts', but rather the network's.
"CBS has informed the NFL that the unusual audio moment heard that fans might have heard during the Patriots-Colts telecast was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast," a league spokesman said Monday.
"The network and the league insisted that it was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium."
To which the Colts released the following statement: "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."
Conspiracy theorists still might not be satisfied. Yet other television executives not involved in Sunday's Patriots-Colts broadcast also suggested the noise came from the TV, not the Colts.
They said that after listening to the disputed moment in question, when the crowd noise dramatically died down after a
Randy Moss reception at the beginning of the fourth quarter, it sounded to them as if an extra microphone was inadvertantly left open. CBS, not the Colts, was to blame.
Another TV executive said that networks typically scatter at least 10 different microphones around the stadium to help pick up natural sound; cameras also have microphones. If any one of them is inadvertantly open, it could help produce the discrepency that brought Sunday's issue to the forefront.
Also, the umpire's microphone is open during the play and as soon as the play is blown dead, the microphone is closed, not opening until a few seconds before the play. This could help explain why the sound would drop after a play is run.
And it's even possible that the reverberating feedback noise that was clearly audible during Sunday's fourth quarter could have come from an audio machine in CBS's production truck. Any one of these issues could have caused the noise heard across the country.
But, as CBS vice president of communications LeslieAnne Wade said Monday, "This is what it was, it was a TV issue."
The bottom line is the Patriots might feel they have the right to complain. The Colts felt the need to explain. And people will believe what they want, adding another layer of intrigue to football's best rivalry.
See what I mean about not jumping the gun CM Drunk?