Mac Jones could face fine for Sauce Gardner incident

The Sauce Gardner–Mac Jones incident from Sunday still has a shelf life. Could the NFL fine the Patriots quarterback for an alleged dirty hit on the Jets cornerback?

Gardner shared a video clip on his social media that shows him pushing Jones, after a possible incident seconds after a scrum over a fourth-down quarterback sneak.

If you missed all this because you were watching other games on Sunday, here’s what happened. The Patriots knocked off the reeling Jets, 15-10. In the fourth quarter, the Patriots used a quarterback sneak to convert a fourth-and-one. C.J. Mosley tackled Jones. And that apparently was it. However, Sauce Gardner said that he ignored Mac Jones’ request for a help-up and pushed Jones’ hand out of the way.

“He got up and he just came up to me like ‘Good job,'” Gardner told reporters. “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 also said he needed to ice his groin injury, telling reporters, “He’s trying to stop me from having kids in the future.”

Sauce Gardner says he had to ice up after Mac Jones' hit:

"He's trying to stop me from having kids in the future" 😭 pic.twitter.com/B1WvKk1UVI

— Jets Videos (@snyjets) September 24, 2023

Now, will the NFL fine Mac Jones over Sauce Gardner’s claims? The NFL does have video of the scrum.

The league fined Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson last Saturday for three incidents in Cleveland’s game against the Steelers. Two of them were for unnecessary roughness.

And the league levied a similar fine against Jones last season. Eli Apple, who was then a starting cornerback for the Bengals, accused Jones of a dirty play during a game in late December. He said the quarterback aimed for his feet during an interception return and tripped him. The league hit Jones with two fines after the game, including one for $13,367 for the Apple play.

Earlier that month, the NFL fined Jones $10,609 for unsportsmanlike conduct in a loss to the Bills.

Meanwhile, Mac Jones said he didn’t punch Sauce Gardner.

“It’s kind of like the famous quarterback sneak that everybody does,” Jones said. “All the guys on both teams are in there. It can get pretty physical. That’s something that I have to learn from is getting my pads a little lower so I can get it and not get held up.”

He also told WEEI: “On that play, nothing was intentional. I just got up and went back to the huddle, and that’s it.”

Mac Jones said that despite what Sauce Garder says, he doesn’t believe he has a dirty rep.

“Like I said, I can’t control that stuff,” Jones said. “I try to be really competitive and go out there and be a good teammate and compete, and come to work every day and work hard and put a lot of hours into it. I definitely care about football a lot and this game means a lot to me and it means a lot a lot of other guys that I play with so I hope that they can see that.”

And with the Sauce Gardner-Mac Jones story in the news, Jets fans don’t have to completely dwell on Zach Wilson’s performance at quarterback. So there is a positive.