TRAINING CAMP NOTES

Boys will be boys

- Chris Bisignano

Giants practice ended last Tuesday with a pretty good melee, even for training camp standards. The fireworks began when Xavier McKinney knocked running back Corey Clement to the ground. While Clement didn’t seem to mind, Evan Engram took exception, shoving McKinney to the grass. Needless to say, teammates from both sides of the ball rushed in to aid their brothers and the end result was 91 players in a Giant pile.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, especially when Logan Ryan creamed Engram from behind, giving a jolt to Engram’s neck.

Judge broke up the fight with some colorful F-bombs and continued to curse out his team before doling out heavy punishment to end the practice.

The team ran numerous goal-line-to-goal-line sprints, followed by two sets of push-ups, with the message clearly sent by Joe Judge.

“You just can’t have that,” Judge said. “You have a pile of players for no reason. The thing is, in a game, you will draw a penalty that can cost you a football game. Being physical is part of football but being stupid and costing your team a game isn’t. Guys have to be more disciplined than that.”

The interesting part was that usually these training camp fights involve players taking it a little too far who are trying to make the roster, not established veterans, and certainty not Daniel Jones, who found himself being dragged out of the pile by lineman Kenny Wiggins.

“Players have to take ownership,” Logan Ryan said. “Players are tired of losing games around here. The fan base is tired. We’re coming out here competing. We have respect for each other 100 percent, but we are going to protect our sides.”

Incidents like these tend to galvanize a team, not separate, like some may believe.