The ManningCast (and other media ventures) have allowed Bill Belichick’s personality to shine through. Unbeknownst to the general public for over two decades, he actually has a great sense of humor, which was on full display Monday. The ex-Patriots head coach ribbed Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts, and, in turn, he got Jim Irsay to respond.
Making his weekly appearance in the first quarter of Monday night’s ManningCast, Belichick was propositioned by Manning to answer a question about crowd noise. With Arrowhead Stadium being among the loudest — if not the loudest — in the NFL, Manning asked the 72-year-old Belichick how he would simulate the crowd noise when playing the Kansas City Chiefs.
Belichick didn’t waste any time taking an underhanded shot at the Colts for allegedly pumping in crowd noise to the RCA Dome. While CBS eventually took responsibility for the crowd noise discrepancy in Indianapolis, which the NFL investigated, it didn’t stop Belichick from getting some jokes in.
Peyton walked right into that one… #ManningCast pic.twitter.com/DnV6GRKWSD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 8, 2024
“Well, 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,” Belichick quipped. “And when the crowd noise skipped, that’s how we know you were pumping it in.”
Manning didn’t know how to respond to Belichick, who may or may not have been serious, but Jim Irsay did.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Irsay took issue with Belichick’s framing on the ManningCast. While he didn’t directly call out the former Patriots head coach, it was pretty obvious what he was getting at. Tuesday morning, Irsay wrote that “piped-in crowd noise” was a “myth” and “1000% fictional.”
He also said the skip was the TV broadcast, for which CBS did take responsibility, as mentioned above.
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.
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) October 8, 2024
No longer the stone-faced general of the Patriots dynasty, Belichick is showing glimpses of a guy who can crack a joke and stir up a little friendly controversy. But it shouldn’t take much for Belichick to stir up Irsay, considering there’s no love lost between the Patriots and Colts between alleged piped-in crowd noise and DeflateGate.
And after all these years, Belichick still knows how to keep Peyton Manning searching for answers.
