Here's where the Pats' front office decided to have some fun: Shortly before the Colts headed to Foxborough for a game last November, Pioli contacted the NFL and, citing the incident at Giants Stadium and Polian's past behavior in the Gillette Stadium press box, indicated he was concerned for the safety of the Patriots' employees. Pioli went on to demand that Polian provide a signed assurance that he wouldn't physically harm anyone who worked for the Patriots; otherwise, the vice president said, the team wouldn't issue Polian a credential. To say Pioli, Belichick and various other Pats higher-ups got a rise out of that bit of gamesmanship would be a massive understatement.
Polian sidestepped the potentially embarrassing quandary by getting admission to the stadium through other means and electing not to sit in the press box. He undoubtedly was still seething two months later, when the Colts hosted the Pats in the '06 AFC Championship game.
"That's when he got us back by turning up the heat in the Dome," insists one Patriots source. "If you remember, we had about eight players who'd been suffering from flu-like symptoms and were dehydrated, and it was like 85 degrees in there. The field was slick, our players were slipping all over the place, and they had the usual pumped-in crowd noise. I give him credit. He got us."
My sources in Indy scoff at the notion that Polian or anyone else ordered the temperature turned up, but even if he didn't, the fact that the Patriots believe it to have been the case tells you all you need to know.
