NFL Rules on Pumping in Crowd Noise..Colts/Polian Cheating?

Question

1) Club-Controlled Sound: The home club does not have the prerogative to decide if such sound hampers signal calling. While spontaneous crowd noises may be beyond immediate control, noise of any kind (music, horns, gongs, drums, etc.) that is under club control must cease when the play clock (40 or 25 second) is running and the visiting team is in possession of the ball. Flagrant attempts by cheerleaders, mascots or the public-address system to encourage crowd noise for the purpose of disrupting the visiting team's offense while the play clock is running is prohibited. The use of noise meters or such messages as "Noise!," "Let's hear it!," "Raise the Roof," "Let's go Crazy," "Pump it up," "12th Man" are prohibited at any time during the game. These examples are not limited to the foregoing, but also would include similar messages that encourage crowds to make random noise in order to disrupt the opposition. The prohibitions specified in this section also apply during kicking plays.

Answer 1

For all of you people who say it was just CBS' problem and none of the radio stations picked it up, I beg to differ. 104.1 WBCN, the official broadcaster for the new england patriots, caught the crowd skipping noise as well, and it wasn't CBS' feed because Gil Santos was doing the play by play, so it was obviously an entirely different feed altogether. They replayed the crowd noise skipping Monday afternoon on the Toucher and Rich show and it was at the exact same moment as the CBS' "audio error." This is clearly an act of cheating and the league is covering it up because they wanted the Colts to beat the Patriots. It's classic good vs. evil, only this time, good choked and evil prevailed.

Answer 2

Interesting comment from : http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/patriots/index.php/2007/11/05/postgame-thoughts-ad-wild-bill-polian-and-fake-noise/


Here’s why it sounded like the real crowd:

“”I’m a live audio engineer. This was NOT a broadcast thing. This is my perception of what happened. I posted this on the Pat’s group on Usenet. This is a cut and paste.

The Colts have microphones placed in locations around the stadium. They are probably somewhere in the domed ceiling. They would be directional shotgun mics and aimed at the crowd. They would be best aimed at the top half of the seating so as not to pick up any field noise. When the opposing team is on offense and before the play starts when the QB is calling signals, the house, (Colt’s), engineer turns up these mics and feeds them through the stadium’s sound system. This is much better than pre-recorded crowd noise because it is a perfect audible match to the environment and there are no recordings of crowd noise to get busted with.

What happened tonight was the engineer turned up the mics too much. This caused the mics to pick up the sound eminating from the stadiums sound system, (the amplified crowd noise), as well as the natural crowd noise. The result is a feedback loop. As this loop continues to cycle through the mics and speakers oscillation occurs. This was described as the skipping sound. At this point the feedback is full bandwidth. This means that all of the frequencies being reproduced by the system were present in the loop. If you listen carefully to the recording you will hear a midrange frequency starting to become predominant. It sounded like something between 600hz and 800hz was starting to take off. At this point the engineer became aware of his error and shut off the mics. That was the abrupt drop in volume that is also on the recording on the PFT site.

If this was an accident with one of the ref’s mics, field noise would have been pumped through the system such as player’s voices. So I don’t think that this a possibility anymore.

I’m practically positive that the Colts were up to no good. Any audio engineer with a half of brain will recognize that sound. That includes the multitude of engineers on NFL payroll. I doubt anything will come of it. It would be a massive scandal for the league’s pretty boy team and a member of the CC. We’ll see what Goodell is made of now. He’d have to have the stadium physically inspected and chances are that the mics are removed after any games. What is good is that Goodell and others will now be listening more intently and this may be enough to make Polian back off and stop using them. IMO the Colts are cheaters.”"

-http://coloyan.com/society/s110407.html

Answer 3

The Colt fans are just too funny. Now you whine about Pats fans complaining about the "integrity of the game" I am a fan of neither team, but I have to say that if the crowd noise thing is true, a harsher penalty than what the Patriots received should be forthcoming. I also believe an investigation of the refereeing is (or should be) in the offing. I heard this morning that there is something going on there. But of course the NFL will be very tight lipped on that. I have not seen such one sided referee calls since the Pittsburgh/Seattle SuperBowl. Face it Colts fans, this was your chance, you had the (enhanced?) crowd, +160 yards in penalty calls in a game that Brady did not play particularly well and STILL came out on the short end. There is no way in heck the Colts will go to NE and win in that stadium in january

Answer 4

The Patriots broke a rule, they cheated, they paid their fine, and they are losing a draft pick. Plus it was against the pathetic Jets who would have lost anyway, with a coach who has a vendetta against the team he walked away from. But the Patriots will be receiving the 2-6 San Fran first round pick. The Colts did nothing different here. They cheated. And they probably won't have the same punishment. Because they are the hollier-than-thou Colts. I am going to love seeing them eat crow for a change. The Colts are absolutely despicable. The Pats are hated because they are good. The refs even had it out for them yesterday AND THEY STILL WON. Shut up Indy. Shut up America. Pats are going undefeated.

Answer 5

I don't care either way but follow the link, about half way down the page is another link of the crowd noise skipping during a play.

"There have been accusations for years that the Colts were "pumping in" crowd noise, accusations that were denied, of course, because that would be "cheating." Listen to http://www.profootballtalk.com/Moss_Catch_Audio.mp3 and tell me that isn't the sound of pumped in crowd noise. The "loud crowd" starts skipping, and then cuts off instantly. It will be interesting to see whether the people who started in on the Patriots the next day after the camera incident actually start on this."

Answer 6

During the national telecast of the Colts-Patriots game, the crowd noise could be heard 'skipping' for several seconds as if there was a fingerprint on the CD. When they recognized it and cut the CD feed, the crowd noise dropped by 2/3rds. That is not only an embarrassment to the Colts, that they cheat this way, but to the Indy fans, who can't get that loud on their own in a dome. Tony Dun-cheat needs to be called out on this.

Answer 7

If this is true how will we ever beat the Patriots?

Can we ask the league to make Tom Brady and a few other players sit while we score some points, like they do in hockey during the penalties?

Can we be allowed to have 5 or 6 more players to help even it up?

If not, how will we ever win?

Just playing poorly and calling them bad names is just not working.

Answer 8

Wow. Did the Colts win yesterday, and I missed it? From the whining coming out of New England, you'd think the Colts won.

Listen to the radio feed. There's nothing funny there. CBS just claimed responsibility for the glitch. Much whining about nothing.

Answer 9

They weren't cheating. It was a problem on CBS audio. If you listen to the exact same part where Randy Moss is catching the ball on the radio affiliates for the Colts & Patriots, you can't hear the CD skipping at all.

Answer 10

This is proof of what everybody knows already: EVERYBODY IN THE NFL IS CHEATING. Everybody. Not just Polian, not just Belichick. Other teams just haven't been caught yet: they're not as arrogant about it. And not just the NFL - it's a part of sports, always has been, always will be. Cheaters do prosper - an unfortunate aspect of human existence.