Less than 24 hours after New York Jets fought amongst each other on the practice field, a couple more brawls broke out on Tuesday prompting Rex Ryan to rip into his team, stop practice, then have them run "gassers" as punishment for about ten minutes.
Ryan, visibly angry, attempted to put an end to the skirmishes that have disrupted the Cortland, N.Y. camp and have rolled dangerously close to cheering spectators.
By having everyone run the 11 penalty sprints from sideline to sideline, the head coach hopes to send a message. Ryan wants to brush off the perception that this year's version of the Jets are still a rogue team but— like any other nurturing, guilt-ridden modern parent— he took the kids to a movie afterwards.
On Tuesday, Ryan twice tried to quell brawls between his players and finally blew a fuse when a 20-man rumble spilled into an area where the fans were.
"I just felt it needed to be done," said a seething Ryan. "There's no question. The point I want them to understand is I'm serious about it. . . Now it's time to rein them in and that's what we did."
Ryan sounded like he was just tired of his brood fighting for a second straight day.
"My big thing is protecting your teammate," Ryan said. " Don't do anything selfish. I think sometimes you're trying to be physical, but being physical is one thing. I have to remind guys that the enemy is not in green and white."
The players are pointing fingers at the press for turning normal training camp competition into WWIII.
"I guess you guys are tired about talking about Tebow," said safety Eric Smith. "So now you can talk about fights."
The coach downplayed his actions later and— in a move to perhaps get the players to bond— surprised the team by cancelling its walkthrough last night and taking it to the movies instead.
Players got to choose between a few movies including "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Total Recall." "West Side Story" was not on the bill.
Rex just wanted some alone feet time with his players.
ReplyDelete