A full-team brawl broke out during NY Giants training camp, and head coach Joe Judge sent a message loud and clear to his players afterwards
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — NY Giants running back Corey Clement busted through the line of scrimmage with a nasty jump-cut before getting leveled in the secondary during a full-team period of Tuesday’s practice, and all hell broke loose.
Just as Clement was being tackled, safety Logan Ryan charged in and hit tight end Evan Engram late and from behind which triggered a full-team brawl with punches thrown and somehow quarterback Daniel Jones winding up at the bottom of the pile.
"“I regret any penalty that would cost my team any yards,” Ryan said after practice. “Everything there is between the lines, we’ll pay our dues. We’re great. Me and Evan are locker buddies. We’ll be fine. I think Daniel Jones jumped in there, everybody respects Daniel. This is a football team, practice gets physical and chippy but everything is left between those lines.“I’m going to pay my punishments. I was protecting my guy out there. At the end of the day, I”m a grown man and paid my dues. That’s what this thing’s about.”"
It was evident Giants coach Joe Judge did not like what he saw.
Judge immediately summoned the entire team into a huddle, launching into an expletive-laden chastising of his players before lining them all up and sending the entire roster running 100-yard gassers.
If the players thought they had paid their penance for the fight at that point, they were sadly mistaken.
Because some players were walking back towards the goal-line when the whistle blew, Judge lined them up again and ordered the entire team do 10 pushups. Before sending them on another 100-yard lap.
Judge wasn’t done, as the players were then asked to do 10 more pushups.
“We certainly got the message today,” Jones said afterwards.
When the last of the pushups were completed, Judge sent the coaching staff off the field and scolded the players one more time.
"“We had a competitive practice,” Ryan said. “Guys were getting after it. Obviously we can’t have that in the game. I think everyone was protecting their sides, and trying to establish a chemistry on the first day.”"
Fights during training camp are not uncommon, especially once the heat and humidity of the summer intensifies, but Ryan says that he hopes his teammates can forge a stronger bond coming out of Tuesday’s brawl.
"“I don’t wish for any more training camp fights, but it’s not my first training camp fight,” Ryan said. “It’s not my 10th. It’s training camp. There’s going to be some animosity between sides, but it’s all well and good in the sport.“Joe is the leader of this team. What he says goes. We’re a team. Everybody in that locker room in united, we’re happy to be teammates. I understand what everyone was doing in that situation. Great teams take the identity of their head coach, which is Joe Judge, but the players are in the locker room. Me, Evan Engram, Saquon, Jabrill Peppers, Daniel Jones, we want to stay together. As a leader of this team, we’re fine, we’re together.”"
Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com, Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL