Did the Patriots just start playing dirty with the Seahawks?

Something about Friday’s report by ESPN that the Seattle Seahawks will be put up for sale after their Super Bowl 60 matchup with the New England Patriots doesn’t sit right with Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard.

And it has everything to do with who the Seahawks are playing for the championship in just nine days.

Report: Seattle Seahawks to go up for sale after Super Bowl

Huard, a former NFL quarterback and longtime football broadcast analyst, weighed in on social media following the report by referring to the reputation the Patriots have earned for their operations under owner Robert Kraft.

“Well, well, well, the NFL team that goes to any length to play games on and off the field,” wrote Huard, who hosts Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “No question in my mind the Krafts (or friends) let media know the Hawks would be up for sale. A tactic and ploy the Patriots would use to try and create distraction. Anyone surprised?”

In a follow-up exchange with Huard, he added that Kraft “has many friends in the ownership ranks and this fits in (the Patriots’) style. It creates distraction.”

Huard also believes that if the Patriots are indeed trying to distract the Seahawks ahead of the Super Bowl, it won’t work.

“I have no doubt the Seahawks won’t be distracted,” he said, “and if anything this will be used as fuel to fight the ‘Patriot Way.'”

Shortly after Friday’s report, a spokesperson for the Paul G. Allen Trust – which has served as the ownership of the Seahawks following the death of owner Paul Allen in 2018 – responded with a statement that pushed back.

“We don’t comment on rumors or speculation, and the team is not for sale,” the spokesperson said, per NFL insider Ian Rapoport. “We’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but I have no news to share. Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months.”

The eventual sales of the Seahawks and the NBA’s Trail Blazers, which Allen also owned, has been expected since his death as he made a directive for the trust to sell both teams and have the proceeds donated to charity. An agreement was reached to sell the Trail Blazers in September.

The Patriots have been mighty successful under Kraft, but they also have a tarnished reputation for how they have gone about their winning ways.

That includes “Spygate,” a 2007 cheating scandal that resulted in the Patriots losing a first-round draft pick for taping coaching signals by the New York Jets from an unathorized location, and “Deflategate,” where the team’s deliberate deflation of footballs in an AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts in 2015 resulted in a $1 million fine, a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady, and the loss of two more draft picks.

The two cheating scandals have been back in the news this week as likely reasons that former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who won his NFL-record six Super Bowls all with the team and is the third-winningest coach in league history, did not gain induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot.

Super Bowl: Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots

• Patriots QB Drake Maye misses Friday’s practice
• Super Bowl Injury Report: Seahawks, Patriots hit practice field
• The Super Bowl uniforms for Seahawks and Patriots are set
• Daniel Jeremiah: Hawks have more talent, but Pats have 3 to worry about
• Seattle Seahawks could make Super Bowl a nightmare for Drake Maye

Related

Report: New Seahawks owners in talks to add to groupLefko: Seahawks’ top extension priority shouldn’t be WitherspoonSeahawks’ Week 17 opponent already hit hard by injuriesNFC West Check-In: Cardinals OL Isaiah Adams arrested in CanadaReport: Seahawks’ Emmanwori went on PUP list because of surgeryInsider shares insight on Seahawks’ ‘intense negotiations’ with star CB Witherspoon