Joe Judge‘s old-school way of making his Giants players pay for the brawl that occurred at Tuesday’s practice has been a national headline in the NFL on top of one in the city of New York. Running goal line to goal line and adding push-ups in between isn’t normally seen in a modern training camp.
But this is who Judge is, and his players respect his methods even if they don’t match the rest of the league.
“That’s kinda the standard that we’ve set here in this building and as a team,” Sterling Shepard said on Wednesday. “Guys have bought in and know what to expect when you step on the field.
“If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to leave. That’s how we do things around here.”
Shepard added that he expected Judge to react the way he did, saying “there’s consequences for your actions.”
Nate Solder is a man who knew Judge prior to his time with the Giants, as both were with the New England Patriots. Judge is the same man Solder met in Foxboro, so this wasn’t an out of character response to a brawl.
“I don’t think he’s trying to be anything he’s not,” Solder explained. “He’s exactly who he says he is and that’s his integrity. I think that’s shown through in the last week I’ve been here.”
As Judge said in his own presser, a brawl in practice gets consequences the same way one in an NFL game would. It would result in penalties and possible ejections. This time, it was extra conditioning.
James Bradberry had that in mind when looking at the situation.
“When you do something that’s going to harm the team, especially during a game when it’s going to provoke a penalty, there’s going to be consequences behind that. I just saw that as our consequence. Our consequence was to run and do push-ups.
“Of course, the physical part, it happens. It’s football, it’s a physical game.”
Hearing these players defend Judge, especially veterans on the team, does ring true to Logan Ryan‘s statement about how the locker room is buying into the system.
And those who don’t can pack their things and go.