The Sports Xchange

Intrigue and suspicion seem to follow the New England Patriots everywhere, and the latest report suggests the NFL swept the visitors’ locker room at Gillette Stadium for listening devices prior to Sunday’s game in Foxboro, Mass., between the New York Jets and Patriots.

During Thursday’s Westwood One radio broadcast of the game between the Patriots and Miami Dolphins, analyst Boomer Esiason claimed a source told him the Jets asked the NFL to sweep their locker room for bugs on Sunday and that a sweep was performed.

On Friday, on his show on WFAN, Esiason repeated his claim regarding the bug-sweeping.

However, later Friday, ESPN.com reported that league spokesman Brian McCarthy said the following: “No such request was made by the Jets.”

McCarthy added via Twitter: “We have for years conducted regular & random checks. we do not get into details of specific games.”

Pro Football Talk also confirmed that the sweep did occur, but that it was not done at the request of the Jets.

Jets coach Todd Bowles said at his news conference Friday, “I know nothing about it. We just go up there to play football.”