Hey, did you know that the Patriots have been accused of cheating once or twice in the past? Well, they have! And it appears that some people around the NFL are not forgetting that anytime soon.
According to the latest reports, the NFL conducted a sweep of the opponent’s locker room prior to the Patriots’ October 25 contest against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium. Those reports indicate that the primary focus of the search was to find bugs discreetly planted for the purpose of eavesdropping.
The Patriots have never been caught using listening devices in the opposing locker room, but rumors of such have emerged in the past, most recently in Sports Illustrated‘s examination of the Pats’ history of breaking and bending the rules.
It’s unknown who exactly requested the sweep prior to the Jets game — or if it was, in fact, carried out — but there are some plausible theories.
Boomer Esiason of WFAN reported on his weekday radio show that the Jets asked that their locker room at Gillette Stadium be swept for bugs in advance of Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
Contacted by PFT, the Jets declined comment regarding the situation. A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the Jets did not request that the locker room be swept for bugs; however, the source did not deny that the locker room was swept for bugs.
NFL comment on report of bug sweep: "No such request was made by the Jets." Statement doesn't address whether sweep happened or not.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 30, 2015
So, if the Jets didn’t ask for the sweep… who did?
As one source has explained it to PFT, the Patriots have become concerned that a team eventually will plant bugs on its own and claim that the Patriots put them there. This has prompted the Patriots to ask the league to certify before each game that the visiting locker room is clean before an opposing team enters. Per the source, the NFL has declined to do this.
As ridiculous as it sounds, there seems to be no shortage of teams that hate the Patriots around the league (the Jets included), so it may not be totally out of the question that another team would try to set them up. Planting bugs would certainly be next-level diabolical stuff, but you can’t blame the Patriots for taking every precaution to make sure they’re not involved in another endless scandal like Deflategate.
Or was it just the NFL initiating the sweep themselves in hopes of catching New England in another cheating scandal? I’m sure Roger Goodell isn’t too happy about seeing Tom Brady and the Patriots shred their opponents this season.
we have for years conducted regular & random checks. we do not get into details of specific games. https://t.co/tRsXOr2iEP
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) October 30, 2015
Suuuuuure.
(Via ProFootballTalk)