Turns out that teams care a little more bit about warm Gatorade than we'd like to admit.
The NFL conducted a sweep of the visitor's locker room during the week 7 match-up between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets in order to determine whether or not there were electronic bugs that the home team could have been using to steal information.
"We have for years conducted regular & random checks," NFL PR shared. "We do not get into details of specific games."
Random is not a word that any Patriots fan would use to describe this event, especially not after the Steelers outcry after their headsets went haywire back in week 1. There was nothing found during this latest sweep, and there has never been anything found against the Patriots.
Radio host Boomer Esiason claimed that the New York Jets requested the sweep, but both the league and the Jets say that the decision was from the league alone.
According to the Globe's Ben Volin, the NFL's league security questioned two Patriots employees wearing headsets on the sidelines. Per the Herald's Jeff Howe, it was more of an interrogation than a questioning:
In the second quarter, an NFL employee identified himself to three Patriots employees, two full-time and one part time, and "interrogated" them, according to the source. The NFL employee said the reason for the questioning stemmed from a complaint filed by the Jets, who demanded to know whether the radio frequencies and stadium operations were performed up to an appropriate standard.
This story directly contradicts the league and the NFL's story that the investigation wasn't prompted by the Jets. Of course, we all know the league is absolutely unreliable with investigations and they will actively lie to cover up their mistakes.
"No wrongdoing was found," Howe relayed from his source. "But the level of interrogation used was unprecedented."
While the sweep itself might have been typical for the league, the subsequent sideline shakedown was beyond reason. The NFL that was publicly shamed for their mishandling of the Deflarthyism trials and those entities that have published hack pieces to perpetuate unsubstantiated rumors from rivals about the Patriots "cheating" are actively trying to push a narrative that the Patriots are a team that can't be trusted.
If there's one thing that supercharges the Patriots into a league-ravaging frenzy, it's when the locker room gets to play the us against the world card. This is just fueling the fire.