Tarik Glenn hints that Colts broke rules in 1998

Indianapolis Colts vs Jacksonville Jaguars - December 11, 2005

Get ready for Miracle Ear-gate.

Or not.

The Colts might have blown the whistle on Deflategate, but a chapter was added to their own history of suspicious behavior when former left tackle Tarik Glenn recalled how they dealt with crowd noise in Peyton Manning’s rookie year.

“We were playing on the road, it might have been Peyton’s rookie year, and it was really loud,” Glenn told the Indianapolis Star via Pro Football Talk. “Peyton (Manning) hadn’t mastered the silent count, so (former offensive line coach) Howard Mudd had us wearing these hearing aids that were supposed to muffle the crowd while projecting the quarterback’s voice.”

If what Glenn says is true, that would have been a no-no.

It also would have broken the rules if the Colts artificially pumped crowd noise into the RCA Dome. CBS took the hit for what seemed like an implausible spike in crowd noise when the Patriots had the ball during a 2007 game at Indianapolis. The Patriots, who had been punished that year for Spygate, won that game 24-20 anyway on the way to going 16-0.

Glenn was gone by then. He played from 1997-2006, making three Pro Bowls and winning a championship with the Colts in 2006. He started all 16 games at left tackle in 1998, the year that he says these “hearing aids” were used.

It might be difficult to investigate something that happened 19 years ago. This probably will be forgotten about by the time Manning is old enough to do commercials for hearing aids.

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