Just some stray thoughts I had on the controversy surrounding the Indianapolis Irsays pumping
additional noise into their stadium, specifically during their recent game against the 3-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots --
I'm not really a conspiracy theorist, and I find it hard to believe that the Irsays -- even the aforementioned Bill Polian -- would do something so idiotic and, for that matter, unnecessary. Of course, it's also alleged that they pumped up the heat in the RCA Dome during last season's AFC Championship game between the same two teams, so you never know.
I watched the game and noticed the glitch at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It was something I had never heard before on a live network broadcast. The only time I've heard anything like that at all is when a damaged or scratched CD skips in a (usually subpar) CD player.
Later, CBS explained that it was a problem the had "in the truck" -- presumably, some technician was looping through a recording, perhaps endeavoring to find a specific highlight to replay or something.
This makes sense to a point, but thinking about it a little further I still couldn't quite believe it. In order for this to happen --
1. The technician would have to be looking at something that only had crowd noise.
2. He (or she) would have to have left the life sound feed to the broadcast "open," enabling the feedback to be heard over the air.
3. The master recording (or the equipment) would have to damanged in some way in order to facilitate the skipping.
4. All this would have to occur precisely at a time during the game when the crowd noise was rising, the falling after the conclusion of a live play (by the opposing team).
Since I highly doubt CBS uses CD / DVD technology to generate replays or highlights during a live broadcast (rendering #3, above, moot), I have to admit I'm rather skeptical. Again, not to go Oliver Stone on this, but it seems like there's too many coincidences to believe that CBS was responsible -- at least
totally responsible -- for this problem. Not to allege any malice on the part of the Irsays necessarily, but I just can't believe CBS's explanation.
That being said, my biggest problem with Super Bowl 41.5 wasn't the Irsays or their fans or any alleged competitive infractions behind the scenes, but the fact that the officiating was absolutely dreadful. The "offensive pass interference" call on Randy Moss was incomprehensively bad. One has to wonder why the NFL assigned a rookie crew to a game of such magnitude.
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