Training camp fights are not uncommon, but don’t tell that to Joe Judge, who was furious after the Giants brawled at training camp Tuesday morning.
According to SNY’s NFL Insider Ralph Vacchiano, after a hard hit on Corey Clement from Jabrill Peppers and Evan Engram retaliated, Logan Ryan shoved the tight end from behind. That led to “everybody” jumping in.
Following the brawl, Judge made all the players, and even come coaches, run from goal line to goal line, and do push ups on end.
A sweaty and out-of-breath Daniel Jones, who was at the bottom of the dogpile, spoke about the brawl after practice.
“We were just competing. Everyone’s excited, first day of pads, to get out there, but gotta do a better job of controlling that and making sure we’re controlling our enthusiasm. … There’s consequences for that kind of stuff, and that’s the way it is in the game if you lose your cool. There’s consequences, and that hurts the team. That was the message, and everyone understands that,” Jones said.
Judge had colorful language — Vacchiano noted he had never seen Judge that angry — but nothing that Blake Martinez hasn’t heard before.
“Those words mean something different to us. It’s different Joe language, so we know it, but you guys just hear that. It’s one of those things you take that criticism and you bounce back…” the linebacker said. “But it’s one of those things you have those moments, you have to learn from them, because that’s gonna hurt you in the game, and we can’t do that.”
The Giants ended practice after Judge asked his coaches to step aside and huddled up all his players together in a meeting after the team ran sprints and did push-ups.
Both Ryan and Martinez feel that the brawl won’t hurt the team long-term, however.
“Everybody in that locker room in united, we’re happy to be teammates,” Ryan said. We want to stay together. As a leader of this team, we’re fine. We’re still together.”
“It’s part of football. I think things happen,” added Martinez. “[We’re] teammates, we’re all brothers out there. You have a little fight here and there, but you’ll always come back as a team and finish strong.”