Toucher & Rich: Mike Giardi on Patriots teammates’ concerns over Mac Jones’ dirty plays
During his appearance on Toucher & Rich, Mike Giardi from Boston Sports Journal discussed New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones and how some of his teammates apparently confronted him about his questionable plays from the previous season, warning him about the potential consequences and reputation damage.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 01: Mac Jones #10 of the New England Patriots attempts a pass during the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on October 01, 2023 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Giardi mentions a specific play where Jones made an unnecessary and potentially dangerous hit on Bengals cornerback Eli Apple, which upset his teammates. They also touch on the idea that if a quarterback is seen as dirty, opponents may take liberties with him.
“Some of the veteran guys on the team, they talk all the time in the league about players having to. ‘The teams don’t care about us, the team doctors; we have to take care of each other.’ That was an instance where they’re like, ‘Dude, that’s a dirty play. You could have wrecked the guy’s season or career.’ Like, who knows what happens there if you catch them the wrong way? The knee goes backward and blows your patellar tendon and your ACL. To your point, there does become that, ‘Well, your quarterback’s dirty. So, you know, maybe I take liberties with you, or maybe I take liberties with him.’ Yeah. If he’s playing well and someone gets to the bottom of the pile and decides they want to twist his hand one way and break his finger, like, you kind of earned it.”
Additionally, Giardi points out a clean hit on Jones during a game against the Cowboys, where no one came to his defense.
“There was a play in the game against the Cowboys. Mac scrambles starts to slide and a defensive player pops him. I mean it’s a good good hit. Nobody did anything. And it was a clean play. Wasn’t a dirty play by the defensive back. That’s the kind of thing where somebody comes over like, ‘dude get off my guy, you can’t hit my guy like that.’ Nothing.”
Jones is known for playing on the edge, sometimes crossing the line. After a questionable play involving Panthers’ Brian Burns in his rookie season, he had three incidents in 2022 and one in 2023 that made people question his fair play.
Most recently, he was accused of hitting Jets’ Sauce Gardner inappropriately during a Week 3 win.
In Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, Mac Jones was benched with Bailey Zappe during the third quarter. At the time of his benching, Jones had completed just 12 of 21 passes and turned the ball over three times. The score was heavily skewed in favor of Dallas at 31-3, and the final result was 38-3, indicating that the change to Zappe didn’t significantly improve the situation.
The 35-point loss marked the largest defeat in Bill Belichick’s coaching career, and the Patriots have only managed to score 55 points in their first four games this season, which is the lowest since Belichick’s inaugural year with the team in 2000.
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Nick Gemelli is a Producer for the Toucher and Rich program and contributor for 985thesportshub.com. you can follow Nick at @NickGemelli on Twitter.
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