Texans’ Antonio Smith jokes about his Bill Belichick comments

After the Texans’ 34-31 loss to the Patriots on Sunday night, Smith said he was suspicious of the way the Patriots changed their offense to stop what the Texans’ defense was doing.

“Either teams are spying on us or scouting us,” he said. “I don't know what it is."

On Monday evening, Smith clarified those comments. Sort of.
“I definitely said it but you have to check the manner that I said it in,” Smith said. “And the manner that I said it in is even if I'm curious and Tonestradamas is thinking things, I didn't use it in the aspect of accusing them of beating us with cheating techniques. What I was doing was ... let me remember how I said it? Let me remember what I said ... 'it was some fishy stuff going on out there.'”

Smith eventually said he was joking and having fun and pointed to his normal personality. He jokes around a lot. He calls himself Tonestradamas and the Ninja Assassin. He even wears a ninja mask onto the field and does a sword celebration after sacks. He said Houston reporters should have known he jokes a lot.

“You have to realize that half of the stuff I say is really spontaneous and witty,” he said. “I hardly ever think about it.”

Smith did apologize for using the word “spying” when talking about the Patriots because of their history.

"I’m sorry that I said the word spying because of a prior engagement of them being caught spying before and it tied to me," he said. "Now, what I did say it, I said it, yes, but I was like joking and having fun with it. It don’t matter to me. Those are the battles between coaches. That’s the schemes and different things like that. That’s between coaches. My battle is trying to figure out how to beat the guy in front of me. When it comes to the point of me feeling like it’s serious enough to say they’re cheating and that’s how they beat us, no, it wasn’t like that.”

But while Smith apologized and claimed he was joking, he admitted he did say he was suspicious and on Monday never took that back.

“Though it may be something that I'm curious about,” Smith said, “that kind of didn't seem right, like how all of a sudden a change here, it wasn't a serious manner to where I was thinking 'ah they spying on us, they cheating,' things like that to the point where it would get to a big story about me accusing them of cheating. It's me being me. Being funny.”

Texans head coach Gary Kubiak was asked if he thought the Patriots did anything wrong.

“No,” Kubiak said. “I have the utmost respect for their organization, their players, their coaches, their head coach, the standard that they’ve been setting for a long, long time in this league. They did a great job yesterday and they’ve been doing it a long time.”

-- Dave Zangaro, CSNHouston.com