NEW YORK — Giants rookie Kadarius Toney wasn’t the only player that threw a punch at AT&T Stadium last Sunday.
Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse punched Giants tight end Evan Engram in the face during handshakes on the field after the game was over, sources told the New York Daily News.
“I was pushing him around the whole game, so he was probably just mad about that,” Engram told the News on Wednesday. “It’s whatever.”
Engram said he didn’t punch back because Kearse had thrown “a little baby punch.” Plus, he didn’t want to get fined.
“There’s this thing the NFL does, they send out letters and they forcefully take money from you for acting up,” Engram said, tongue in cheek. “So I don’t need any of that. It was a little baby punch anyway. It was soft. So I definitely want to keep my money in my pocket. I’m good.”
Fox executives deferred to the NFL when asked to supply video of the incident. The NFL told the Daily News to check with NFL Films. A league spokesman said that NFL Films employees checked and that there is no video of the incident in question.
A Cowboys spokesman declined comment on behalf of Kearse.
The perception coming off Dallas’ 44-20 win was that the Giants were the only team that had lost their cool. Leonard Williams certainly didn’t help that perception by ripping Cowboys running back Tony Pollard’s helmet off as the fourth quarter wound to a close.
Kearse admirably had rushed to the aid of a wobbly Daniel Jones in the second quarter, also.
But the Kearse-Engram postgame incident has gone around the Giants’ locker room. And they’re filing it away for Dec. 19 when the Cowboys come to New Jersey for a rematch.
“I wish I would have been there,” said right guard Will Hernandez, who didn’t see the Kearse punch when it happened. “But I heard about it afterwards. They told me. You know what? It’s great, because we play them again.”
Engram said he and Kearse had approached each other to jaw when the clock hit zeroes. Then Kearse took it a step too far.
“I walked up on him. He walked up on me kinda, saying some stuff. He threw the punch,” Engram said. “We had some guys there that separated us, so it was kind of boom, boom.
“He stole one off, and everybody was there to separate us. So I kinda just let it go,” he added. “I dapped up some of my old coaches and friends on the other side [afterward] and went into the locker room.”
Hernandez had his own helmet ripped off by a Cowboys player with 6:06 to play in the fourth quarter while trying to rescue Toney from the bottom of the pile after his punch at Cowboys safety Damontae Kazee.
Hernandez then pancaked Cowboys defensive end Tarrell Basham to the turf and took off Basham’s helmet on the last play of the game to drive home the Giants wouldn’t back down.
The Cowboys gloated on Sunday, from Ezekiel Elliott high-stepping into the end zone to linebacker Leighton Vander Esche saying his body felt fine after a game that wasn’t especially physical.
“I care very little for what they do and how they do things and how they conduct themselves on their team,” Hernandez said. “All I care about is our guys being good, our guys being not messed with, and us being healthy and ready to go.”
Sterling Shepard, who had to sit out the loss with a hamstring injury, snickered at Kearse’s punch of Engram.
“Tsh, we play them again in December. Simple as that,” Shepard said Wednesday.
“Losing sucks and losing to our rival sucks,” Engram said. “But the best thing about that is we’ll see them again.”