Ron Rivera calls Joe Judge fistfights comment ‘interesting’ ahead of Giants-Washington finale

Joe Judge said Wednesday that he wasn’t talking about the Washington Football Team last Sunday when he said his Giants “ain’t a team that’s having fistfights on the sidelines.”

“No. I just made a comment to any outward dysfunction,” Judge said at the podium. “My focus is on getting our team ready for Washington right now. You could make a lot [out] of … comments I’ve said in the past. Right now I’m focusing on getting the team ready for Washington this weekend.”

The comment clearly caught the attention of Washington coach Ron Rivera, however, since his defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne were swinging at each other on national television during a recent blowout loss at Dallas.

“Honestly, I just find it interesting, and I have no response to that,” Rivera said on a Zoom call with the New York media. “To me the important thing is we play on Sunday more than anything else, and I’m more concerned with getting ready to play a football game.”

Judge could have been alluding to a lot of teams. Dallas Cowboys players have punched opponents during postgame handshakes twice this season, just as an example. Still, Washington (6-10) is this week’s opponent and is coming off that high-profile internal fight.

Rivera said “as far as I’m concerned, what people don’t know, that’s just the fact that they’re not paying enough attention to know what’s going on. So I’m not gonna worry about it. I’m just gonna go forward.

“My feelings are I’ve got enough respect for the Giants’ organization, what Mr. [John] Mara and Mr. [Steve] Tisch have done there. This is one of the staples of the NFL as far as I’m concerned. And we’re just two teams getting ready to play Sunday.”

Judge said he hasn’t spoken with Mara or Tisch about his 11-minute postgame defense of his Giants (4-12) program.

“I talk to ownership a good bit all the time,” Judge said. “In terms of any of the things I’ve said, no.”

Rivera acknowledged that trash talk “is all part of the game” and said “there’s nothing wrong with having a chip on your shoulder” if his players want to use the comment as fuel.

He said “I don’t think” they’re driven by Judge’s comment, though.

“One of the things I tell our guys is let’s pay attention to what’s important, not what’s interesting,” Rivera said. “To me that’s an interesting comment. It really is. Because it really doesn’t impact what’s gonna happen on Sunday for the most part.”

Rivera defended the fight between Allen and Payne as two guys who were “very passionate” and “very emotional,” venting frustration while “we’re getting our butts kicked.”

He joked, when asked about Washington’s pending nickname announcement next month, that “bare-knuckle brawlers” could now be in play.

Rivera (13-19), of course, doesn’t have a much better record than Judge (10-22) does in their corresponding two seasons in the NFC East. Washington only won the division at 7-9 last season over a 6-10 Giant team because the Eagles tanked the season finale.

So there have been whispers about Rivera’s seat getting warmer, too. But the 11-year head coaching vet said he thinks it’s important to show poise under that pressure.

“Do I feel pressure? Yeah, because I want to win,” Rivera said. “I feel pressure because I put it out there that in Year 3 I expect us to take a big step… One of the lessons I learned from my father is you can’t do your job if you’re in a panic. My players are looking at me. They’re looking to see how I handle all this and if I’m in a panic and doing stuff that’s out of character, they’re gonna get out of character.”

“But if I try to maintain and keep my composure, work hard, focus on us and work on what’s important, I think our players will do the same thing,” Rivera added. “Do I feel pressure? Absolutely. But I think that pressure’s there every day. It’s just whether or not you’re sweating it or not.”

GOOD GUY? WHO, ME?

Defensive tackle Leonard Williams couldn’t believe he was named the Giants’ 21st annual Media Good Guy Award winner.

“Yo, how is that possible?” Williams said to teammate Julian Love, the second-place finisher, as they changed places on Wednesday afternoon’s Zoom call.

“I just didn’t think I’d be the good guy,” Williams hilariously added later.

It might not say much about the voting collective that Williams wouldn’t even have voted for himself as being consistently and outstandingly cooperative with the media. He is honest, at least.

“I’m actually surprised about that one, I’m not gonna lie,” he said.

With 16 media members submitting their top three players, Williams (26 points, seven first-place votes) beat out Love (18, four first-place), Kenny Golladay (16, two), Andrew Thomas (11) and James Bradberry (eight, one).

“I [am] surprised that out of everybody that I won an award,” WIlliams said, “because sometimes when I’m being brought in I give [director of football communications] Dion [Dargin] or some of the staff a hard time about talking to the media. And I had the whole incident talking about the fans [booing].”

Love, before he knew who had won the award, guessed kicker Graham Gano. When told Williams had beaten him out, the Notre Dame product said: “Oh hell no. I mean, damn, a USC guy, too, that stings.”

As Love concluded his interview, he announced with a smile: “I’ll pass it off to, unfortunately, the most liked guy on the team.”

The award also has been renamed the George Young-Ernie Accorsi Good Guy Award to include Accorsi, a second former GM who was cooperative during his time here. Accorsi remains a close confidant of Mara’s.

“It means a lot to me that this comes from the media, to know you [as a GM] were fair and honest with them,” Accorsi said in a statement. “I really enjoyed my interaction with the New York media. It was a great experience, the give and take. George was a master at that. Anything that has to do with George means a lot to me. I really appreciate this, especially because of the connection to George.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3eZErfK