New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers is sorry after a hot mic caught him saying the quiet part out loud.
The New York Giants were the better of two bad teams Sunday afternoon, gutting out an ugly 10-7 win against the New England Patriots. As the players left the field, Peppers ran over to Giants running back Saquon Barkley and said, “You lucky we a**.”
No lies told. The Patriots are abysmal and the Giants were lucky enough to be playing against them on Sunday. Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots got used to being called a lot of things in recent decades; great, historic, champions and cheaters to name a few. But a** was never one of them.
Peppers, however, was unaware that Barkley was mic’d up when he offered up his assessment of the Patriots. Friday afternoon, Peppers met with the media and issued an apology after ABC 6 reporter Ian Steele asked the veteran safety about the adjective he used to describe the Patriots on Sunday.
More Jabrill Peppers:
“I just got caught on a hot mic, man. I didn’t even give Saquon a chance to tell me!”
“I don’t think that it’s right they put that out. A lot of things that get said… they don’t put out.”
“I own that and everything I say.”
2/2 @ABC6 #ForeverNE #NEvsLAC pic.twitter.com/oJt6MAz0yo
— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleABC6) December 1, 2023
“First of all, I just want to apologize to my teammates and the coaches for even having to answer questions about that,” Peppers said. “We’ve got more important things to worry about than me being caught on a hot mic. But at the end of the day, we’re 2-9, we got a Top 5 pick in the draft that didn’t come through a trade. We all know the standard, we all know what it’s supposed to look like. And it’s not that right now.”
Years ago, Belichick might have cut or traded a player for calling the team “a**.” But this season, that might be viewed as more of a gift to Peppers than a punishment. Peppers proceeded to take blame for the incident, admitting that as a 28-year-old in his seventh NFL season, he should know better.
“I just got caught on a hot mic, man,” Peppers continued. “I didn’t even give Saquon a chance to tell me! I don’t think it was right that they put that out because a lot of things that get said on that football field and I know there’s multiple people mic’d up game in and game out that they don’t put out. So I was kind of taken aback by that, but at the end of the day, I own that and I own everything I say.”
Peppers didn’t break any news when he called the Patriots “a**” on Sunday. Surely, he’s not the only player in the locker room taking shots at the team. He’s just the only one who was caught doing it on a hot mic.
