The real fireworks came during practice when two skirmishes broke out. The Jets weren’t amused by Smith’s unsupervised throwing session, summoning him to the facility on Sunday.
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While Bowles made it clear he didn’t approve of the fighting, he did like the physicality of practice.
Smith was the victim of a punch from IK Enemkpali in a locker room fight last week, which left the New York Jets quarterback with a broken jaw.
“We understand that we can talk and mess, and we can jaw at each other”. “There’s no cutting and no hitting in the back, no cheap shots”.
It has been a long trail of frustration for the Jets since that day when quarterback Joe Namath led them to an upset victory in the Super Bowl.
Damon “Snacks” Harrison took that message to heart.
“Snacks is practicing to be an auctioneer, ” Bowles quipped.
“That’s up to the doctors”, Bowles said.
Tussle number one featured Breno Giacomini and Quinton Coples. The second began with offensive lineman Dalton Freeman and defensive lineman Jason Babin throwing punches and soon escalated into a pileup of players.
“As of now, we haven’t heard anything”, Treiber said.
“Testosterone”, he said. “They get exhausted”.
“Coach doesn’t want that because we need everybody to play on Sunday”. “I already knew”. I should’ve walked away from the situation. Bowles wasn’t very pleased, and made the entire team run “gassers” or sprints. On Sunday, he doled out more punishment.
“No, my rule is the same going in”, he said. “It’s just part of the game”. “I’m assuming, and I’m not a doctor so don’t quote me on this, but you can drink protein shakes or something from a straw, but I have no idea about his meal plan”.
Bowles knows that, too.
Jets fans can take solace in the fact that it is only preseason, and Todd Bowles was using a vanilla defensive scheme running mostly zone defense. But he’s striving to find that balance between physical and reckless. “It’s a fine line”. “I think that’s one of my strengths as well, so we’ll get on the same page”. It probably looks pretty easy until you go out there and do it, especially with the pads on. Are we getting ready for inconsistent nature of play and leadership that Jets fans have been accustomed to over the last two years?
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NOTES: S Calvin Pryor was not at practice and will be out for “quite a few days” while tending to personal matters. Defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson (hamstring) didn’t practice for a seventh straight day.
