Battle Royal: Jets Have Back to Back Days of Fights

Added by Justin O'Connell on August 8, 2012.

Jets camp has seen it's share of fights this week.

The New York Jets practice the last two days has not been a wrestling ring like some have made it out to be, but it has been an atmosphere of high tensions and fighting. The team is ready to face somebody other than themselves, so they can really get all their training camp frustrations out.

On Monday, running back, Joe McKnight, and cornerback, D’Anton Lynn got into a little scuffle when Lynn tackled McKnight out of bounds. McKnight responded by throwing the ball at Lynn’s head and then the two tackled each other to the ground.

McKnight said, “Were ready to get the season started.” The team has had enough of hitting each other and wants to remain a close unit. “I love D’Anton and we got no problem,” said McKnight on Lynn. Ironically Lynn is the son of the Jets running back coach, Anthony Lynn, who coaches McKnight.

Head coach Rex Ryan brushed the fight off as nothing major. “We had way better ones my first year here and there’s no question about that. Like I said though, this is the first time we’ve seen a sign get knocked over but, I’ve seen way better ones than that.”

This little skirmish was not considered to be a problem until Tuesday, when Antonio Cromartie and Dustin Keller went at each other during practice. Cromartie was the instigator and Ryan put most of the blame on his cornerback, but made the whole team suffer for his actions. He made them all run “gassers” until “He (Ryan) was tired”.

Ryan then ended practice and made the team get together and watch a movie, in an effort to have everyone relax and bond. The team watched the “Dark Night Rises” and according to Tim Tebow, “Well we didn’t know about it, but it was nice. It was fun. I think everyone on our team enjoyed it, the different people in our organization really enjoyed it. It was just fun to be with everybody and go see a movie.”

The team got the message and did not question Ryan’s rule. On Wednesday, the team had a well disciplined day of practice where everything went right and there were no hard feelings. Keller talked about how Ryan’s message got through to everyone, “You never want to be out there getting into it with your teammates. You know it’s a physical game and those things are going to happen, but you have to take care of your teammates. We’re all good, it’s just we’re out here in the second week of everyone being away from their families, and friends, their home, and home cooked meals and all that good stuff. So it can start getting a little crazy out here, but at the end of the day we care about each other, and we will take care of each other.”

The Jets players will have a chance to hit as hard as they would like against the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday in the first pre-season game. The team seems to be having no problems with Ryan’s stricter coaching style and it appears to be effective. Ryan has been attending meetings on both sides of the ball in order to know exactly what is going on with all his players. He said, “This is the closest group of guys I’ve had since I’ve been here.”