Chuck Pagano calls John Harbaugh's Crowd Noise Comment an "Insult" to Colts Fans

On Monday, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh brought up a rumor from long ago regarding the Colts crowd noise.

"We had a loud stadium in Cleveland and it's only going to be louder in Indianapolis.  Rumor has it they pipe crowd noise in there. We'll see if that's the case or not," Harbaugh said, smiling.

Asked whether that is illegal, Harbaugh said, "Yes, it is.  It's a rumor.  It's a rumor.  Sorry Chuck [Pagano]."

Harbaugh and Pagano coached together for a few years in Baltimore, and many have taken Harbaugh's comments as a lighthearted jest.  The Colts and Chuck Pagano aren't laughing.

"To be honest with you, we've kind of got our blinders on and that's really the first time that I've heard that," Pagano said Wednesday when asked about the comments.  "Now that you mention it, it's really the first time that I've heard him talking about us piping in crowd noise. (pause) I think it's more of an insult to our twelfth man, if you will.  I think he's calling out our fans, which I think are the best fans in the National Football League.  So let's see how our twelfth man reacts to that insult."

I looked at the history of the allegations yesterday and how all of the rumors happened in the RCA Dome (which was much louder than Lucas Oil Stadium is now) and how the NFL investigated and found nothing wrong.  I wrote:

Ultimately, John Harbaugh should probably spend his time worrying about getting his team ready to play instead of making "jokes" about the Colts piping in crowd noise, because in the two games Harbaugh's Ravens have played in Lucas Oil Stadium, the Ravens have lost a combined 51-6 and are, obviously, 0-2 in those games.  He can spend this week complaining about the rumors (that weren't true), or he can spend the week trying to make sure that his team wins this week, or at least is close - neither of which they've been able to accomplish yet in Lucas Oil Stadium.

Scout.com's Phillip B. Wilson also wrote about how the comments were an insult and how Harbaugh owes an apology, and it's worth a read in it's entirety.

John Harbaugh may think it's a funny joke.  But it's not.  Chuck Pagano doesn't think so either, and he is challenging Colts fans to be loud on Sunday in response, reacting to Harbaugh's insult.  I'll challenge fans as well: if you're going to the game on Sunday, let Harbaugh hear it, and let him hear the noise made by the crowd - and not anything piped in.  Chuck Pagano said it best: it's an "insult" to Colts fans.