Patriots: Chris Simms has wild accusation about team monitoring Cam Newton

NBC analyst Chris Simms made a bold claim about the Patriots’ process leading up to signing Cam Newton.

NBC analyst Chris Simms is not one to shy away from disclosing a misleading scoop. As recently as May, he reported that Dak Prescott rejected a record-setting $175 million contract from the Dallas Cowboys. In humiliating fashion, dependable NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport swiftly refuted his claim.

That makes us view Simms’ latest insight with a grain of salt.

Per the former quarterback, the New England Patriots did more than their fair share of  homework on Cam Newton before inking him to a one-year contract a few weeks ago — and by “homework” Simms means that the franchise followed the former MVP for close to a month before signing him.

“I think they started to do their homework on Cam,” Simms said on his “Unbuttoned” podcast. “What is the guy like? Does he work hard? Can he handle our mental grind of stuff we put in in our offense on a daily basis? I think they started to do their due diligence there. And listen, New England, again, if you made me bet I would bet New England had Cam Newton followed for three to four weeks. That’s just the way New England works. I don’t mean to be like creepy about it, but that’s what I always heard they did with Randy Moss back in the day.”

For starters, you can’t make a claim as significant as this without providing details. To what extent did the Patriots keep tabs on Newton? Did it only concern workouts and rehab or was his personal life involved? It sounds like Simms is speculating that the organization spied on the 31-year-old star, and that’s a really dangerous game to play.

We obviously wouldn’t put this past New England, which is as calculated as any team in sports, to be this paranoid before signing a player that’s coming off shoulder and foot surgeries, but Simms’ verbiage makes it seem like their methods were a blatant violation of Newton’s privacy.

The Patriots are an organization that teeters on the border of ethics and morality, so this tactic certainly isn’t beneath them. However, we’ll wait for one of the big dog reporters to follow up on this rumor before we start throwing accusations around.