Count the Miami Dolphins among those suspicious of the New England Patriots.
The Dolphins took extra precautions to guard against potential wrongdoing when they visited New England in late October, multiple sources told the Miami Herald.
Those precautions reportedly included traveling with more equipment staffers than usual for a road trip so that no Patriots employee would have any reason to touch (and potentially tamper with) the Dolphins’ gear ahead of or during the teams’ Week 8 showdown at Gillette Stadium.
The Dolphins’ reported precautions (and Tuesday’s Miami Herald report detailing the preventative measures) came on the heels of a September ESPN “Outside the Lines” report indicating the Patriots’ Spygate allegations ran deeper than originally believed. A Sports Illustrated article published around the same time as the ESPN report also detailed the crazy level of distrust NFL teams have toward the Patriots, who many believe frequently skirt or break the rules to gain a competitive advantage.
All things considered, it isn’t that shocking the Dolphins brought some extra bodies to Foxboro. The paranoia surrounding the Patriots has reached new heights of late, particularly in the wake of Deflategate, and the Dolphins probably didn’t want to take any chances for what was a big game.
In hindsight, the Dolphins probably should have been more focused on stopping Tom Brady and Co. The Patriots rolled to a 36-7 win over the Dolphins on Oct. 29 to improve to 7-0.
We’ll see if the Dolphins take any extra precautions in their own barn come Sunday, when Miami hosts New England at Sun Life Stadium to close out the 2015 season.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
