Sauce Gardner shares video he says shows Patriots QB Mac Jones hitting him 'in my private parts'

On Sunday, Sauce Gardner accused New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones of hitting him below the belt.

On Monday, Gardner shared video that purportedly shows the alleged incident. The video shows Gardner, a New York Jets cornerback, shoving Jones after Jones emerges from the middle of a scrum following a quarterback sneak during Sunday's game between the AFC East rivals. Gardner continues to pursue Jones as an official intervenes and Jones walks away from the situation.

Later Monday, The Athletic's Dianna Russini shared video from a league source with a zoomed-in few of the alleged incident. The alleged hit is mostly obscured, but Jones appears to make contact with Gardner's groin with his right hand.

Here's what Gardner had to say after Sunday's game, a 15-10 Patriots win.

"That's probably the first time that's ever happened to me," Gardner told reporters. "He got tackled. He reached out to me to get me to help him up. I just moved his hand out of the way.

"He got up and then came up to me like 'Good job.' 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 then joked that Jones was threatening his prospects as a future father.

"I do gotta ice up," Gardner continued. "He's trying to stop me from having kids in the future."

Jones was asked about Gardner's accusation. He denied hitting him below the belt while changing the subject to the physical nature of running a quarterback sneak.

"No," Jones said when asked if he thought he did anything wrong on the play. "I think just trying to get the first down. Third-and-one, and then we came back on fourth-and-one and tried to fake it. Definitely a physical play. Lot of guys are in there.

"It's kind of like the famous quarterback sneak that everybody does. 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."

This is not the first time that Jones has been accused of dirty play. In 2022, Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Eli Apple accused Jones of "dirty play" after Jones dove at his feet during an interception return by linebacker Germaine Pratt.

“He tripped me,” Apple told reporters. “I thought it was a dirty play. He’s done that before. I’ve seen it.”

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay then wrote on social media that Jones is "Dirty af!!"

The NFL fined ultimately fined Jones for the low hit on Apple and a separate unnecessary roughness penalty in the same game.