The Eagles preseason game in Week 2 against the New England Patriots just got a whole lot more interesting.
On Friday, Cary Williams dropped a line that will definitely make its way around the NFL about the Patriots.
“They are cheaters,” Williams said. “They are.”
Williams made an obvious reference to Spygate, the scandal that cost the Patriots $250,000 and their first-round pick in 2008. The Patriots last Super Bowl win was in 2005. Even with the scandal five years in the past, Williams says that is their history and that’s how they should be known.
“I’m trying not to go into details about it or disrespect that organization,” Williams said. “I give them all the credit in the world. But one fact still remains, they haven’t won a Super Bowl since they got caught.
“To me it’s not benefiting us because they’ve already proven who they are [from Spygate], that’s their history. And I don’t like them, not only because of that, but because I just don’t like them. I played them three of four times in a row [in the playoffs].”
Williams plays with fire. That’s obvious. He recently spoke about the Eagles pair of scuffles in the early days of camp and said it’s good to get fired up against your own teammates, let alone in game action. He directed that fire to New England on Friday.
Prior to the preseason game between the two teams, the Eagles and Patriots will share a practice field, an annual joint agreement by Chip Kelly and Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Williams said he expects the Patriots to be watching he and his teammates, which makes the concept of a joint practice take the mystery out of preparing for a game.
“I used to like the mystery, where you just come into camp, you do your camp, you go against those other guys and you get that itch to go hit some other guys,” Williams said. “When you’re practicing against other guys, other teams early on, you don’t get that itch. That itch is gone.
“I know you’re gonna be looking at the film when we go out there. That’s just that. I don’t want to show them my card. That’s just me, not them. Not them. Every team is gonna look at it anyway. We’re gonna look at what they do too.”
Williams had said he wasn’t going to be an outspoken member of the team during camp after seeing the way some comments exploded the year before. Some things never change.
After a quiet week on the practice field, with the usual drills seeing success and progress being made. That escalated quickly.
Kevin Durso is a contributor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
