Jets’ Sauce Gardner accuses Mac Jones of below-belt cheap shot

Jets’ cornerback Sauce Gardner said Patriots quarterback Mac Jones hit him below the belt at the end of a late skirmish between the two teams in the Patriots’ 15-10 win.

Asked why Garder reacted angrily and shoved Jones after the play, the Jets’ second-year standout described the following sequence:

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“That’s probably the first time that’s ever happened to me,” Gardner said. “He got tackled. He reached out to me to get me to help him up. I just moved his hand out of the way. He got up and then came up to me like ‘Good job.’ While he was saying that, he hit me in my private parts. I didn’t react like I really wanted to. I definitely wasn’t expecting that. First time for everything I guess.”

Gardner then added that he had to “ice up” and that Jones is “trying to prevent me from having kids in the future.”

Jones was asked about the play after the game and responded about the quarterback sneak that preceded the alleged low contact.

“Um, no,” Jones said in response to whether he’d done something wrong. “I think just trying to get the first down. Third-and-1 and then we came back on fourth-and-1 and then tried to fake it. So definitely a physical play. A lot of guys are in there. It’s kind of the famous quarterback sneak that everybody does. All the guys on both teams are in there. So it can get pretty physical and that’s something I have to learn from, is getting my pads a little lower so I can get it and not get held up.”

It’s not the first time Jones has been called dirty. He’s been accused of tripping opponents, grabbing legs in a scrum and raising his leg to spike an opponent when sliding and a low block at Eli Apple’s knees.