When fights broke out at New York Jets training camp for the second straight day, head coach Rex Ryan decided enough was enough and stopped the practice to make players run sprints.
Ryan said about why he halted practice to make his team run sprints for the first time in his career:
"Well, because you remind them of things. I have already talked to them about taking care of one another. When I saw the situation where that was exactly what I was talking about, how that isn't taking care of one another, I had seen enough and I just ran them."
The Jets played their scrimmage on Saturday and Ryan said there is usually some chippiness at practice after the scrimmage but what he saw the past two days was different and had to be stopped.
"I guess the big thing is I just felt it needed to be (ended). No question, I just thought it needed to be (ended). The point I wanted them to understand is that I'm serious about it. I think a lot of times, guys will fight and they'll do all that type of stuff, and as a coach, sometimes you want that out of your guys. You want them to be over the top aggressive because you can always rein them in. Sometimes if they don't have that, then you kind of wonder. Clearly, I don't question the guys' toughness, I don't question the guys' courage. Now was the time to rein them in, and that's what we did."
Ryan declined to attribute any of the incidents at practice to feelings that have carried over from last season.
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