A few years ago, a drummer friend of mine who shall remain nameless (because I don’t want to embarrass Harry Druzd) nearly missed his own band’s gig because he was too immersed in a televised pre-season football game.
Perhaps he was onto something?
In the aftermath of last weekend’s joint practice rumble between the New York-New Jersey Giants and their Meadowlands tennants The Jets, there’s some tough talk in advance of their August 26 exhibition game.
From the AP :
There’s going to be a lot of animosity, you can count on that,” Giants linebacker Barrett Green said Monday. “In the preseason game, there’s no question about the rules, there’s no question about hitting people. They’re going to get hit, hard.”
Saturday’s joint practice with the Jets turned into a free-for-all when three Jets jumped Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey on the second play of a 9-on-7 drill pitting the Giants’ offense against the Jets’ defense.
Later, Giants coach Tom Coughlin and Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson had a heated argument on the field over some hard hits made by Jets defenders.
Most players characterized the brawl as nothing more than blowing off steam after a week of two-a-days. On a more general level, several Giants players and Coughlin felt the Jets took advantage by playing overly aggressive defense in a practice that was meant to feature “butting,” or tagging, players instead of tackling.
“Obviously, they had different intentions out there than we did, and it showed,” said Green, a starter who is coming back from ACL surgery and sat out both sessions Saturday. “I don’t think there were a whole lot of people over here on the blue side who were too happy about it. They had a few smart comments they made about how that’s how they practice, but we’re very capable of practicing that way, too. But we didn’t get a chance to do that.”