ALBANY, N.Y. – Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey got into a fight with two Jets players on the second play of a joint practice between the teams Saturday that also featured an argument between Giants coach Tom Coughlin and Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson.
On the second play of a 9-on-7 drill pitting the Giants offense against the Jets defense, Shockey got in a tussle with defensive backs Erik Coleman and Oliver Celestin, and soon all three players were throwing wild punches.
Coleman and Celestin pulled the Giants tight end to the ground and Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma jumped on top, touching off a melee involving numerous players from both teams. Order was restored after a few minutes.
“I was blocking somebody and I got shoved in the back, and the next thing I know, everybody’s fighting,” Shockey said. “There’s no bad blood. That’s how football is. You might as well do it now, when you don’t get fined and Paul Tagliabue can’t take any money out of your pocket. Do it now, get it over with. I’m sure it happens at every other camp.”
Later in the morning practice session, Coughlin got into an argument with Henderson after several plays in which the Jets appeared to go beyond the prescribed rules of the practice, which allow defensive players to bump or slow down ball carriers as they go by, without tackling them.
Jets safety Kerry Rhodes hit Giants wideout Willie Ponder on a route over the middle, forcing Ponder to leave the practice early with bruised ribs.
Brandon Jacobs, the Giants rookie 6-foot-4, 265-pound running back, retaliated by bowling over 6-2, 212-pound Jets cornerback Pete Hunter after catching a short pass.
And finally, Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer was knocked down by Jets linebacker Eric Barton after a short pass reception. Toomer struck Barton in the helmet, and the two players had to be separated.
“This is practice,” said Toomer, who is in his 10th NFL season. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
At one point Coughlin yelled at Henderson from about 20 yards away, causing Henderson to respond, “That’s the way we practice, coach. We put our hats on people.”
Jets coach Herman Edwards blamed what he called his team’s “testiness” on getting up at 4:30AM for a three-hour bus ride from Long Island to the Giants camp here.
Henderson defended his players.
“I don’t think any of it was over the line,” he said. “You push and shove, and sometimes people take it the second level. But I don’t think anyone was intentionally trying to injure anyone. I don’t think there was any misunderstanding about what the tempo was going to be. I just think we practice at a different tempo at our place than was expected here.”
Coughlin was not amused by the antics.
“We don’t want that. That’s not what we teach, that’s not why we’re here,” he said. “We’re here to practice to try and get better. We certainly didn’t come to fight. We understand that sometimes those things are going to happen, but there were too many occasions.”