Colts deny aiding crowd noise during Steelers game

PITTSBURGH -- The Indianapolis Colts deny they supplemented the already loud crowd noise in the RCA Dome during Monday night's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers by pumping heavy bass noise through the stadium's speakers.\n"We are doing nothing wrong," senior executive vice president Pete Ward told The Indianapolis Star. "We've got the loudest stadium in the league, with the fans naturally providing that sound."\nAny crowd noise enhancement would be a violation of NFL rules, but NFL spokesman Steve Alic said the league is not investigating whether the Colts tried to make it difficult for the Steelers' offensive players to hear the snap counts.\nSteelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said the crowd noise during the unbeaten Colts' 26-7 victory was so loud that center Jeff Hartings couldn't hear the play calls. Steelers right guard Kendall Simmons jumped offsides three times because he couldn't hear the snap count.\n"The crowd noise killed us, no question," running back Jerome Bettis said. "It killed us. You can never say what it means, how valuable it is. The sound is valuable. It's tough for you to do anything. Offensively, it was tough for us to get going."\nColts president Bill Polian raved about the fans in his weekly question-and-answer column posted Thursday on the team's Web site.\n"They were into it. They affected the outcome of the game," Polian said. "They bothered the Steelers. Their snap count was fouled up. They caused numerous penalties. That's the home field advantage and that's what you have in the National Football League."\nNFL rules permit supplemental noise until the offense breaks the huddle. At least one NFL team, the Redskins in 2000, has been fined for supplementing the crowd noise. The Redskins were fined $20,000 for piping noise from their cheerleaders through the public address system during a game against Tampa Bay.\nWhether the Colts supplemented the crowd noise came into question when Ed Werder, an ESPN reporter who covered the Steelers-Colts game, said on a Dallas radio show he heard the bass noise coming through the stadium's speakers.\nThe Steelers had no comment Thursday on the report.