The Kansas City Chiefs hosted the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football in Week 5. The Chiefs came away with a convincing 26-13 victory and the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium (or GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium) got the assist as they were loud. So loud in fact that Bill Belichick made a note of it during Peyton and Eli’s MNF “Manningcast.”

Belichick and Peyton were once fierce rivals when Manning’s Indianapolis Colts routinely took on Belichick’s New England Patriots. So the former head coach used the crowd noise at Arrowhead to take a little dig at Peyton, saying that the RCA Dome – where the Colts used to play – was louder because the team piped in noise.

“I’ll tell you, Peyton, the crowd noise there at Arrowhead wasn’t as bad as it was when you guys piped in music at the RCA Dome. And then when the music skipped – when the crowd noise skipped, that’s when we knew you were pumping it in,” Belichick said, via NFL on ESPN.

It’s an old accusation and Belichick was clearly having a little fun putting Manning on the spot. Peyton didn’t respond with an outright denial, he simply laughed it off. But Colts owner Jim Irsay weighed in on Tuesday, writing “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,” per ProFootballTalk.

Jim Irsay insists Colts did not pipe in artificial crowd noise 

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Belichick and Irsay were referring to the AFC Championship Game from the 2006 season when the Colts beat the Patriots in Indianapolis. During the broadcast the audio skipped, which helped create the rumor that the Colts were making the dome louder artificially. But CBS, the network airing the game, acknowledged that the skipping noise was a broadcast issue, not something that could be heard at the stadium.

The admission by CBS allowed the NFL to clear the Colts. Indy went on to beat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl the following year but lost to the New York Giants. New England would win three more titles with Belichick and Brady. But for some reason the Colts owner and the Patriots former coach are both still a bit salty about the fake crowd noise claim.

In 2024, the teams are not having anywhere near the same success they experienced in the mid-2000s. Despite a heroic effort from quarterback Joe Flacco, who nearly led a comeback in Week 5, the Colts fell to the previously winless Jacksonville Jaguars. Indy is now 2-3 on the season. The Patriots, meanwhile, lost an ugly game to the Miami Dolphins in Week 5. The team is now 1-4 and in last place in the AFC East.