Patriots quarterback Mac Jones’ reputation came under fire once again this week when Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner accused Jones of hitting him in the private parts during a scrum Sunday.
Devin McCourty says Mac Jones has to avoid situations like Sauce Gardner incident
In his weekly appearance on WEEI’s Jones & Mego, Jones denied doing anything intentional. He reportedly won’t be suspended by the NFL either, although it’s unclear if that’s because the league doesn’t have definitive video proof or because it simply doesn’t deem it a serious enough infraction.
Either way, this isn’t the first time Jones has been accused of being a dirty player. He was fined twice last season, once for a low block on then-Bengals cornerback Eli Apple and once for jumping on a pile late. He was also criticized for a kick to the groin of Bears defender Jaquan Brisker while going into a slide last season and for twisting the ankle of Panthers defender Brian Burns in 2021, although he was not punished for either of those incidents.
Making his weekly appearance on The Greg Hill Show on Wednesday, former Patriot and Jones teammate Devin McCourty said he doesn’t think Jones is a dirty player, but he does think Jones needs to stop having incidents like this before his reputation is permanently damaged.
“I won’t call Mac a dirty player, because I know him personally and I think he’s a good dude, a good kid,” McCourty said. “But I will say he has to stop being around these incidents. It won’t matter what any former teammate says, current teammate says. Is it on purpose? Did this happen? Is it intentional? It’s not gonna matter, because once you’re involved in too many of these situations, it is what it is. You can’t come back and say, ‘No, this is what I meant to do.’ There’s a lot of players who play this game and they’re not involved in any of these things.
“So, I think he does need to do a better job of finding his way out of, whatever it is you want to call it. The twisting of the ankle. Chicago, it was like the kick on a slide or something. Even last year, cutting my guy, the corner in Miami, Eli Apple. All of these different things, I think for anybody, you can’t keep defending the same thing. So, I think he needs to do a better job of that. I don’t think he’s a dirty player or a dirty person, but somewhere along the line, the competitive edge, he’s doing things you don’t really need to have on the football field, ever.”