Patriots’ Bill Belichick Fires Back At Josh Gordon Tardiness Report

Josh Gordon was supposed to miss a few series of the New England Patriots’ Week 8 contest Monday, but that didn’t prove to be the case.

Prior to the Pats’ game against the Buffalo Bills, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the wide receiver would miss roughly a quarter as punishment for tardiness. But Gordon was very much an active contributor in the win, even taking part in the opening drive.

So … what was the deal?

After the game Patriots head coach Bill Belichick dismissed the report, and he disputed it again Tuesday during his weekly interview with WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria.”

“I don’t know,” Belichick said, as transcribed by WEEI.com. “You’d have to talk to Ian Rapoport on that. I’m not really sure where that’s coming from.”

Belichick then expounded, claiming misinformation getting spread is fairly common practice.

“(It) happens every day with the media,” Belichick said. “There are things out there every day that I don’t know what the basis is, what it is about. I have a fairly decent familiarity with the team. I see things about our team that I have no idea. I don’t know. You’d have to talk to the people that wrote them.

“… Look, we talk about a lot of things and I would doubt that there is a player on our team that hasn’t been involved in some type of situation like this where something was said that they had to respond to, or maybe didn’t respond to, that was let’s call it, not necessarily accurate.”

Gordon was targeted six times against the Bills, making four catches for 42 yards.