Bears defensive lineman Justin Jones fires shot at Patriots over Deflategate
BOSTON -- Bill Belichick is the king at not providing New England's opponent with any bulletin board material. That was on full display earlier this week when the Patriots head coach went on for over seven minutes about why the 2-4 Chicago Bears are a good football team.
The Bears, on the other hand, seem to be fine with providing some added motivation for their opposition. On Thursday, Bears defensive lineman Justin Jones took a shot at Belichick and the Patriots, bringing up the "Deflategate" scandal from the 2015 AFC Championship Game when Tom Brady was quarterbacking the Patriots.
Brady is gone, but Jones believes that the PSI funny business is still going on in New England. Asked by Mark Carman of CHGO Sports what comes to mind when he thinks of Belichick, Jones responded with, "Deflated balls."
He doesn't trust the Patriots, so Jones will be doing his own spot checks throughout Monday night's Patriots-Bears tilt at Gillette Stadium.
"I heard it's still going on. So I'm going to check those things before we go," Jones said of Monday's game balls. "I'm so serious. I heard it's still going on so we're going to see. I'm for sure checking. I play this game with honesty man, you know what I'm saying?
"That ain't cool. I'm going to check them," he continued.
That will certainly sit well in the New England locker room. The current players -- only four of whom were on the roster for that AFC title game in 2015 -- must love being lumped in with a controversy from nearly eight years ago.
The Patriots usually respond pretty well when an opposing player calls them out. With the Bears already 7.5-point underdogs, Jones may have made life a lot more difficult for his team come Monday night.
After the Patriots and the Bears are done on Monday Night Football, switch over to TV38 for full reaction and analysis on Patriots 5th Quarter!