People on the Internet appeared to freak out on Monday when it was reported that the Jets had a 20-person fight at training camp. A video of the fight shot by Seth Walder of the New York Daily News is shown above, and unless he only got the very end of things, it didn’t look like a 20-person brouhaha, much less anything of significance. In fact, the players appeared to be fired up after the “fight,” as did some of the fans.
The skirmish started when cornerback D’Anton Lynn pushed running back Joe McKnight after he was already out of bounds. McKnight responded by throwing the ball at Lynn and charging at him. Other teammates joined in after that.
Rex Ryan brushed aside the intensity of the fight, saying he’s seen much better. Mark Sanchez didn’t like what he saw.
“There’s no excuse for it,” Sanchez said, per the New York Daily News. “One, it doesn’t look good. And two, it sends a wrong message to our team. We want to take care of our guys. You want to take it to the brink and compete to the last possible moment and then always remember to protect the team, protect your teammate. I don’t like to see it. I know guys get testy, and that’s the way it goes, but we got to control that and make sure we’re not hurting anybody.”
“(If) you throw the ball at somebody in a game,” Sanchez said, “you are going to get 15 yards. I don’t know if that’s a great habit to get into.”
Mark Sanchez really had the most enlightened comments of all. He’s exactly right when he says a reaction like that develops bad habits. At the same time, the coaches probably don’t mind too much if it fires up the team.
Skirmishes take place every day at training camps across the country, but this story becoming a national one just reflects how much all things Jets-related gets overblown. Rex Ryan may have quit the prediction business to take pressure off his team, but it won’t matter; with the amount of attention the Jets are receiving, everyone will be targeting them.
