"The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd, who when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about. I don’t think Jets fans leave early." -- Tom Brady, September 2010

No way around it: The crowd at Gillette Stadium is an absolute non-factor. Apathetic with the perfect splash of entitlement. You can reasonably expect Tom Brady to throw for 300 yards on Saturday night against the Broncos, or Rob Gronkowski to catch a TD pass, or Wes Welker to haul in 10 receptions. What you shouldn't hold out hope for is any impact from the crowd. Hasn't happened in years, so why should that suddenly change on Saturday?

Just an inoffensive bunch, the kind of crowd you can throw your 4-year-old son in the middle of without a second of pause. It's 68,756 folks simply thrilled to spend the first six or seven minutes of the third quarter buying shirts and stuffing pretzels in their faces. Guess they think Brady, Belichick, Welker, Gronkowski and Hernandez will be here forever. Well, what's past is prologue. Be careful. 

When was the last time you watched a Patriots game and saw the opposing quarterback forced to call a timeout because the crowd noise was overwhelming? It never happens. We see crowds in Denver and Pittsburgh and Green Bay and Kansas City and Houston (indoors, to be fair) influence the game. And we know the Patriots have terrific fans -- TV ratings are insane, merchandise is at an all-time high, all that stuff -- but the Gillette crew shows up, sits down, claps a little, texts a lot, checks fantasy scores, looks at the JumboTron, claps a little more, goes to get some food, sits back down, claps a little more and the leaves with 6:30 left in the third quarter to beat the Route 1 traffic. 

Were the fans the reason the Patriots lost the last two home playoff games? Nope, that's on the players and coaches, of course. We know that. But should the fans get any credit for Tom Brady's career record of 70-13 at Gillette Stadium? Nope, he's 55-25 on the road, best road winning percentage in history. 

The home-field advantage is Brady and Belichick, and that's it. 

As to exactly why most successful franchise of the salary cap era plays in front of something just above silence and well below chaos, there are plenty of theories. Let's take a look at four.

THE WEATHER IS LOUSY

Sorry, doesn't fly. OK, Foxboro isn't South Beach, but take a look at the temperatures at kickoff for all eight home games this season:

San Diego, Sept. 18: 51 degrees

Jets, Oct. 9: 82 degrees

Cowboys, Oct. 16: 63 degrees

Giants, Nov. 6: 54 degrees

Kansas City, (Monday night) Nov. 21: 31 degrees

Indianapolis, Dec. 4: 51 degrees

Miami, Dec. 24: 30 degrees

Buffalo, Jan. 1: 51 degrees

Not too shabby. I've been to all eight games -- in the press box, yes, but walked around the stadium before and after and had the windows open during the game -- and it was never close to uncomfortable. This isn't minus-11 against the Titans in 2004 (and I was in the stands at that game, and guess what? It was loud). From a weather perspective, this is as good as season as you'll get. There was winter on Halloween weekend (Pats were in Pittsburgh), and until Thursday morning that's been about it. So the idea that fans are bundled up, and gloves can't make much noise, and ski masks and all that stuff does not work. And again, it was plenty noisy during the Snow Bowl at the old place, the crowd was absolutely a factor in playoff wins in 2003 and 2004 and there are other bad-weather cities (Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Denver, KC) where the fans can serve as a disruption for the opposition.

GILLETTE STADIUM WAS DESIGNED POORLY

Strike two. If you were at Gillette for the season (and stadium) opener in 2002 -- a win over the Steelers, the night the first Super Bowl banner was raised -- you know the design of the place has nothing to do with it. The building was as close to jumping as it'll ever get. No one walked out of that stadium after that game thinking that the home-field advantage had suffered at all by replacing Foxboro Stadium with Gillette Stadium.

REALS FANS ARE PRICED OUT

Could be something to this. The "real" fans vs. the business crowd. Listen, I don't begrudge Bob Kraft for charging hundreds of dollars per ticket, I really don't -- free market and all that -- but when you do that you are going to get the kind of crowd that often includes people who wouldn't mind if you'd please sit down so they could enjoy the game. And that's the vibe at least in the lower sections, the red seat crowd I referenced earlier. No real concern with the game itself. As long as the Woodhead shirt is tucked properly into the khakis and no one spills any beer on them, the day is generally a success. You want a crazed atmosphere? Knock down ticket prices and remove all suites. Won't happen, and that makes perfect business sense. But a Patriots game -- at least in those lower sections -- now is largely a corporate event.

FANS ARE FAT AND HAPPY (FOR THE POLITICALLY CORRECT CROWD: CHUNKY AND JOLLY)

I think we're getting closer. Three Super Bowls. Four AFC titles. Nine AFC East championships. One of the two or three (at worst) top quarterbacks in NFL history. One of the two or three greatest coaches in NFL history. And it sure doesn't seem to be slowing down -- the Patriots have 27 wins over the last two years, most in the NFL. It's easy to be spoiled, right? And some folks are spoiled. Maybe it's hard to take a November game against the Chiefs seriously when one eye is always focused on the postseason. Is all sense of urgency gone? Could be -- the chase for that first title (at least the first for a generation of fans) is just different. The crowds at TD Garden for the Bruins last year or the Celtics in 2008 were tremendous, particularly during the postseason. Maybe the combination of two straight home playoff losses plus seven years without a Super Bowl plus the Tebow Factor will inspire something from the Portly and Pleased crowd. We shall see.