Report: Jets Checked Locker Room In Foxboro For Hidden Microphones
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Just in case you were hoping to make it through this weekend without hearing or seeing a story accusing the Patriots of being dirty, rotten cheaters, don't worry! Boomer & Carton have you covered.
Boomer Esiason casually mentioned on Friday morning's show in New York that prior to Sunday's game at Gillette Stadium, the Jets asked the NFL to check their locker room for recording devices.
Esiason did not report that the NFL actually found any recording devices, therefore making it mostly a non-story. Yet Boomer's radio partner, Craig Carton, is a Jets fan, so he tweeted the story and gave it some legs.
"Football teams are paranoid. Every team is. Even the Patriots are paranoid. Everybody's paranoid in this league. This league is filled with a bunch of lunatics," Esiason said, noting that the Jets requested the NFL do the searching.
Carton then imagined what would have happened if the NFL actually found listening devices.
"Can you imagine if they found something? Like, how did that story not get out, if you knew it?" Carton asked. "That's a major story. ... That's a significant story in the NFL, that that's the level of distrust that at least one team has with the New England Patriots."
The story then took an interesting turn when Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported that the Patriots may have been the ones who requested the locker room be checked for bugs, a preventative measure to ensure that no opposing could frame the Patriots.
"The Patriots have become concerned that a team eventually will plant bugs on its own and claim that the Patriots put them there." Florio wrote. "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."
Florio also added a key detail: "No listening devices ever have been found in any locker rooms in the Patriots stadium."
The New York Daily News also reported that the NFL denied Esiason's report. Dom Cosentino from NJ.com also reported that the Jets "absolutely did not ask to have Pats' locker room swept for listening devices before Sunday's game."
Nevertheless, lumping the "Patriots" and "cheating" or "spying" into a headline always gets the country excited. And so, it's a "story." But ... not really.
Zolak & Bertrand discussed the Esiason report on Friday's show. Scott Zolak summarized the story thusly: "It's good. Yeah. Love taking all of your energy prior to a game instead of preparing for it. The other team's already in your head."
Listen to the full discussion below:
