Tom Brady Says RCA Dome Was His ‘Biggest Challenge’ After 20 Year Bitter Colts Rivalry

For years, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady had a similar concern. Ever since the quarterback made his first NFL start in Week 3 of the 2001 season at the RCA Dome, he noticed something unusual. While the Indianapolis Colts were defeated 44-13, with Brady’s journey toward icon status launched successfully, the win was not the only thing on his mind that day. It was the realization that Colts fans would be a bigger hurdle to their wins than the actual team. In a recent candid conversation, Brady peeled back the layers on exactly why.

In the debut of “Story Time With Tom,“ the QB-turned-Fox analyst admitted, “The RCA Dome, that place was crazy to play. Indianapolis Colts—obviously had a great offense. So, whenever the offense did something good, the crowd went crazy. The fans were, like, right behind you on the bench. When you sit there on the bench, you would hear them screaming right from behind you. It was so loud.” But that’s not all, as the former Patriots star then added a jab which can be traced all the way back to an incident decades ago: “When they pumped the crowd noise in, it made it even louder because you couldn’t hear anything. That was the biggest challenge.“ 

After all, the NFL isn’t just about the touchdowns and tackles. “A play…gets screwed up because you didn’t get a call right or your partner didn’t get a call or a certain person couldn’t hear something in the huddle. So, when you go on a road, and you have 75,000 people screaming from the time you break the huddle to the time you walk to the line of scrimmage to the end of the play, it’s pretty intimidating,” the retired quarterback further noted, ironically smiling through his confession. Perhaps he was reminded of the 2007 season.

Notably, during the first play of the fourth quarter of that year’s Colts-Patriots clash, loud cheering noises were heard on CBS’ broadcast. The crowd noises had reportedly started exactly when Brady threw a 14-yard pass to Randy Moss and immediately subsided as the latter was tackled. Shortly after, a 1-minute, 10-second clip of the incident titled “Indy Cheats” also surfaced on YouTube, only adding fuel to the fire. What made the incident more suspicious were clear signs of vibration in the sound. “CBS has informed us that the unusual audio moment heard by fans during the Patriots-Colts game was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast. It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium,” the NFL had clarified later. But, clearly, that was not enough.

Almost 13 years later, when the COVID pandemic had forced fans to be confined within their homes, Brady’s new team had found a way to keep morale high. During a practice session of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fake crowd noises were blasted through the speakers. Brady later joked to reporters, “I thought it was one of the Colts’ old tapes from when they used to pump all that sound in at the RCA Dome. I was telling coach Clyde [Christensen] he must have pulled that one out of his basement for today’s practice.” Fast forward to 2024, and even Belichick joined the roasting bandwagon…

In October last year, the Arrowhead Stadium echoed with loud fan chants as the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the New Orleans Saints. Amid this, former Colts QB Peyton Manning had questioned his Manningcast guest, Belichick, on how he prepared his team to tackle such noise. The head coach had retorted, “Well, I tell you Peyton, the crowd noise there at Arrowhead wasn’t as bad as when you guys piped in music at the RCA Dome. Then when the crowd noise skipped, that’s how we knew you were pumping it in.” Sometime later, Colts owner Jim Irsay had hit back on X, “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.”

Well, looks like no matter how much the Colts resist the accusations, that’s one piece of history they can never truly leave behind.