The NFL swept the New York Jets' locker room for bugs prior to Sunday's Week 7 game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. That obviously sounds pretty juicy, given DeflateGate and other instances of the Patriots being in the news for potential cheating. But it's worth noting that the Jets did not request the bug sweep, per the report.
The NFL checked the Jets’ locker room for listening devices before Patriots game
The league conducts regular, random sweeps of locker rooms for listening devices, according to league spokesman Brian McCarthy.
Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports
Initially, there was no comment from the Patriots or the NFL, but after PFT tweeted that the Jets did not make a request for the sweep, the NFL’s Brian McCarthy responded by saying the league has conducted “regular and random checks” for years, and that it does not get into specifics about said checks or when they take place.
No listening devices have ever been found in the locker rooms in the Patriots’ stadium, according to PFT. One interesting note is that the Patriots are reportedly concerned that a team will plant bugs of its own and claim that the Patriots put them there, which would obviously get the Patriots in a whole lot of trouble. The team has requested the league sweep the visiting locker room before an opposing team enters, but the NFL has declined, according to the report.
Allegations of Patriots’ cheating has gone on for a long time and will continue until basically everybody currently associated with the organization is no longer with the team. We’ll probably see many more articles like this over the years. Meanwhile, the Patriots just won again on Thursday and are still undefeated on the season, so they have that going for them.
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