Patriots say Jamal Adams' hit on mascot was a 'painful attack'

Jordan Heck

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Patriots say Jamal Adams' hit on mascot was a 'painful attack' image

Jets safety Jamal Adams was having fun with the Pro Bowl crowd Wednesday when he went over to tackle Pat Patriot, the official mascot of the Patriots team.

The clip was shared by ESPN and acquired over 1 million views on Twitter alone. Adams himself shared the video with the caption, "This one is for every Patriots hater out there!"

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Adams tackled the mascot because fans at the event kept booing him (after all, not many people are fans of the Patriots). In another video he smiled after saying, "Watch, I'm going to go knock out that Patriots mascot." He was clearly just having fun with the lax attitude of the Pro Bowl practice, but he didn't realize that he apparently put the person in the mascot costume in danger.

There's some confusion as to what kind of danger he put Pat in, however. 

Adams said Thursday he was told from the league the person inside the costume was hospitalized as a result of his tackle. 

From ESPN's Michael DiRocco:

Adams said he was told the person inside the mascot costume was hospitalized on Thursday morning, but the NFL has not yet confirmed that information. Adams said the NFL is not happy with him because of the incident. "He [the mascot] was running around and everybody was booing him, so I said, ‘You know what? Let me go tackle him,’ Adams said. "I didn’t hit him that hard, man. All jokes aside, I didn’t hit him that hard. I don’t know what’s really going on, but they did tell me he’s in the hospital. My intention was never to hurt him. it was all about just a joke but I definitely want to check on him and make sure everything is good. At the end of the day we were out here just having fun and it wasn’t nothing intentionally to try to hurt the guy."

After this quote was shared by a number of outlets, some started wondering whether he really did put the person in the hospital. After all, the NFL never officially commented on the issue so it was just taking Adams at his word. And Adams has a history of joking, and in a video with ESPN he didn't appear very remorseful for his actions.

But we may finally have answer as to what happened. Patriots reporter Mark Daniels got a comment from a Patriots spokesperson who said, “He was not hospitalized. He did seek medical treatment from the on-site medic. It was a painful attack.” The team also confirmed this was not a staged incident.

Adams' statement that the NFL wasn't happy with him also seems to hold up. The league's official sub-Twitter account (@TheCheckdown) took down two videos involving Adams and Pat Patriot, one of which was a different angle of the hit you viewed above, and another where the mascot apparently got revenge on Adams by tackling him back.

The NFL has made no official statement on the incident.

Jordan Heck

Jordan Heck Photo

Jordan Heck is a Social Media Producer at Sporting News. Before working here, he was a Digital Content Producer at The Indianapolis Star. He graduated with a degree from Indiana University.