Things have gone south in a hurry for a New York Jets team that had playoff aspirations heading into the season. The Jets have lost four straight games, but it sounds like tempers began boiling over after the first of those four.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com learned this week that star players Brandon Marshall and Sheldon Richardson got into a heated verbal altercation after New York’s 24-3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3. Head coach Todd Bowles confirmed on Thursday that the argument took place but said it never got physical.
“I took care of it right there,” Bowles said. “I addressed the team and I addressed the two guys. It will not happen again.”
While shouting matches happen all the time in the locker room, coaches often say they are happy to see their players showing passion and caring about winning. The fact that Bowles insisted an altercation such as the one Marshall and Richardson had “will not happen again” indicates the players took thinks too far.
“I was right there, I heard it. It was loud. Yell down there, yell down here. It was no more than a normal training-camp deal,” Bowles added. “It wasn’t anything significant. There were a bunch of people who had words because everybody was pissed off.”
Marshall said the exchange was a mere disagreement between two “alpha males” and that he and Richardson cleared the air the following day.
“It was problem solving, starting off the season really bad,” Marshall told ESPN.com. “You guys understand how emotional and how intense the game is. When you come in the locker room after a loss like that and you’re looking at each other, trying to problem-solve, it may not always be the right time. Sometimes you have to give it a day or so for everyone to calm down and cool off and say, ‘OK, what do we need to do to solve it?'”
That was the game where Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a whopping six interceptions. The Jets are now turning the offense over to Geno Smith with a 1-5 record, so the spat between Marshall and Richardson clearly didn’t accomplish much.
You have to wonder if Bowles got flashbacks of one of the most embarrassing locker room incidents in sports history when his two star players got into it. The last thing the Jets need is history repeating itself.
