Jets deny they asked NFL to check for listening devices

New York Daily News You can never be too careful around the Patriots.
The Jets were wary enough of their friends in Foxborough to request that the NFL search their locker room for listening devices before the team’s game against the Patriots, former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason claimed on his WFAN show Friday morning. Esiason said he first broadcasted the news Thursday night on the radio while he called the Patriots-Dolphins game in Foxborough.
While it doesn’t sound that crazy given the Patriots’ reputation from controversies over the years, a league source shot down Esiason’s claim as being untrue.

An NFL spokesman said the league received no such request from the Jets. Asked whether the league carried out a sweep of the locker room, the spokesman said, “We have conducted for years routine and random checks around the league. We do not get into details of specific games.”
ProFootballTalk reported that the league did in fact sweep the locker room, but not at the Jets’ request. The NFL’s search was “part of a broader check of electronic systems and devices,” the report said.


The Jets would not comment on their security measures. Gang Green lost to the Patriots in Foxborough on Sunday, 30-23.
Asked later Friday about the report, coach Todd Bowles said “I know nothing about it.”

Cornerback Buster Skrine also said he was unaware of any possible locker-room sweep in Foxborough.
“No clue,” Skrine told the Daily News. “I hadn’t heard of that.”
Between Spygate and Deflategate, it would be understandable if teams might take a little extra caution when entering Gillette Stadium. In addition to those two scandals, in September ESPN cited several former Patriots coaches and employees who revealed that the Patriots would have someone sneak into the opposing locker room during pre-game warmups and steal the opponent’s play sheets. The Patriots have strongly denied any notion of wrongdoing.

There have been stories about Peyton Manning being especially cautious when he’s been in Foxborough, fearing that the visitors’ locker room might be bugged. If he wanted to discuss strategy with someone, Manning would leave the locker room and hold the conversation in a nearby hallway.
Bowles said he was not suspicious about any potential Patriots mischief in their home stadium.
“No, we just go up there to play football,” Bowles said.

Skrine expressed a similar sentiment regarding suspicions. “Nah, I don’t think nothing about it,” he told The News. “I just go out there and play. At the end of the day, we both have to go out there and play the game. I don’t think nothing about it.”
To sweep a locker room for bugging devices is nearly unprecedented in the other three major pro sports.

A spokesman for Major League Baseball said no club had ever requested to have its clubhouse swept for listening devices.
The NHL hasn’t had a comparable situation that readily comes to mind. The closest thing to this NFL paranoia in the NHL probably would be teams’ occasional arguments over coaches watching opponents’ morning skates on game days.
Montreal Canadiens coach Michel Therrien stirred the pot the morning of Game 4 of the 2014 Eastern Conference finals at the Garden when he tossed and F-bombed two Rangers assistant coaches and a staff member out of the stands for violating what he called “a gentleman’s agreement” between clubs.

There are also coaches who insist on wiping their locker room’s white boards completely clean so no strategy is left for a snoop to scoop, and old stories of equipment staff measuring the other team’s curves to later catch them with illegal sticks.
In the NFL, however, the Jets and other teams have every right to be suspicious. The Jets were the victims of Spygate in 2007, when the Patriots were caught filming Gang Green’s defensive signals from the sideline during a Week 1 game.
Sidelines are not designated areas for filming, and the Patriots were severely reprimanded. Bill Belichick was hit with a $500,000 fine, with the team getting fined $250,000. The Pats were also stripped of their 2008 first-round draft pick.
More controversy sprouted this season in the wake of Deflategate as the Steelers had issues with their headsets during their opening-night loss at Gillette Stadium. They complained about hearing the Patriots’ radio broadcast for much of the first half. Coach Mike Tomlin even said “that’s always the case,” with respect to communication problems as a visitor at New England.
The NFL cleared the Patriots of wrongdoing the following day, pinning the troubles on “an electrical issue made worse by the inclement weather.”