On the first day of practice with pads, Tuesday, August 3, the New York Giants players ended up in a massive brawl.
Massive fight here at #Giants camp. Corey Clement busted a big run, Logan Ryan leveled Evan Engram late. Somehow Daniel Jones ended up on the bottom of the pile.
Joe Judge lines whole team up on the goal line, and now the entire team running 100-yard gassers.
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) August 3, 2021
Big brawl during a team period. There was a big hit on Corey Clement downfield, Evan Engram shoved the tackler (didn’t see who it was) and then Logan Ryan nailed Engram from behind. Whole team got involved. Joe Judge is livid. Full team sent to run sprints.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 3, 2021
At the bottom of the pile was quarterback Daniel Jones who spoke to the press about it.
“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.”
"This @Giants training camp has been about toughness and togetherness. The brawl should be no surprise. This was like a stick of dynamite and the fuse was lit. It can't happen again, but I don't think anyone there is surprised or disappointed that it did." — @PSchrags pic.twitter.com/xkOuvzEXk5
— GMFB (@gmfb) August 4, 2021
Because of this, some are asking if Coach Joe Judge has lost control of his team.
The answer is no.
Judge Was Furious
It is not as though Judge took kindly to the events that transpired.
The angriest I’ve seen Joe Judge. He just called the players together and is lighting them up. Told everyone else to stay out of the huddle. https://t.co/LUFFZgkYv4
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) August 3, 2021
He was reportedly furious and using a lot of colorful language when addressing the team.
Giants players are running goal line to goal line again … and again … and now back to push ups.
Joe Judge is doing his best Herb Brooks imitation now. pic.twitter.com/l5ELerBQBu
— Ralph Vacchiano (@RVacchianoSNY) August 3, 2021
Judge also had the team running 100-yard sprints and doing push-ups after the fact.
After all of that, he huddled the team (without the other coaches) to make sure the players knew how he felt about the events that transpired.
Conclusion
Judge handled the situation in his furious state.
He did not try to pacify the team or give them a pep talk.
Judge punished his players with sprints and push-ups.
It sounded like he took control of the situation.
We do not have the benefit of video of the brawl or its aftermath because video recording was prohibited during that portion of Tuesday’s practice.
If the Giants have another brawl, then arguably Judge is losing control of the locker room.
Until then, we need to realize that it is early in training camp, players are competing for jobs, and the Giants were 6-10 last year so there could be a lot of extra intensity in the locker room related to all of these factors.
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