FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Five days after quarterback Geno Smith was decked by one punch in a locker room altercation, the New York Jets lost their cool on the practice field. There were two skirmishes on Sunday, prompting Todd Bowles to stop practice. He made the players run five penalty gassers, following that up with a stern rebuke at midfield before practice continued.
This time, there were no punches thrown. They were your garden-variety scuffles, with tackle Breno Giacomini and linebacker Quinton Coples in the first bout and center Dalton Freeman and linebacker Jason Babin in the second.
The latter scuffle resulted in a pile up of several players, but the situation was quickly defused. Bowles warned the team at the start of camp that he doesn't tolerate fighting, threatening fines and expulsion from practice. When Freeman and Babin were separated, the team knew what was coming:
Wind sprints.
In 95-degree heat.
In full pads.
By the end of the sprints, many were bent over at the waist, sucking wind.
Bowles said he didn't lower his tolerance based on the infamous Smith-IK Enemkpali fight in the locker room.
"My rules were the same going in," Bowles said. "If you fight and hit somebody out on the field, I don't think they got bad out there. But you want to prevent it before it starts. The arguments were fine. You just want to make sure nobody cheap-shots nobody. They knew they'd be running, but it's at my discretion of how much.
"We understand that we can talk and mess, and we can jaw at each other. As long as the hits are clean and everything, we're fine. But we've got to take care of each other at the same time. If it's good, clean play, I don't have a problem. They can talk all day."
The defense was in a particularly chippy mood, perhaps because of its disappointing debut in the preseason. Nose tackle Damon Harrison was chirping throughout practice, even from the sideline. Bowles joked that Harrison is "practicing to be an auctioneer and talk at an auction when he gets done" with football.
These skirmishes were the first two in camp, not counting the Smith-Enemkpali smackdown. The timing wasn't great, happening to close to the punch heard 'round the sports world, but it doesn't mean the Jets are an uncontrollable bunch. This was a physical practice, and tempers flared in the heat.
"Testosterone," Bowles said. "They get tired. Guys are out there for a long time. It's football."
