Giants’ duo get into long scuffle at practice

New York Giants’ duo right tackle Bobby Hart and defensive tackle Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison got into a scuffle during Thursday’s practice. It was one of several flareups for the Giants.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. » As the weeks progress in NFL training camps, it’s not unusual to see players grab each other by the jersey, wrestle, yell a few profanities and then get separated by teammates as the coaches repeatedly blow their whistles.

It’s the old boys-willbe-boys approach, and the New York Giants have been going through it lately as camp stretches into its second week and players don shoulder pads.

Coach Ben McAdoo doesn’t mind it. He wants his team to be physical. He wants his players to know what it is like to hit and be hit.

What the second-year head coach doesn’t want is the prolonged scrums. Invariably, someone gets stepped on or knocked down and an injury happens.

“The extracurricular stuff after the whistle is something that irritates the vets, and those are the things we need to put an end to,” McAdoo said Thursday. “You can be physical and you can be heavyhanded; you can fit your pads in and you can finish, but when that whistle blows, that extra stuff after the whistle is unnecessary.”

The biggest blowup Thursday was between starting right tackle Bobby Hart and defensive tackle Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison.

The other flareups were shorter. Defensive end Olivier Vernon and rookie offensive tackle Adam Bisnowaty got in each other’s face as did middle linebacker B.J. Goodson and veteran running back Orleans Darkwa after the second-year defender hit him on a play.

“Practice is practice,” Vernon said. “You’re going to get things like that. You know, we just keep moving forward from that. We’re still teammates at the end of the day.”

Vernon said everybody is trying to get better and the blood gets flowing in the heat.

“It gets very competitive out there,” said Vernon, a veteran who signed an $85 million contract with the Giants as a free agent in 2016. “You know, that’s football.”

Darkwa said players should expect to be hit once the pads go on. He was not surprised by Goodson.

“It’s his first season as a starter so maybe he is trying to make a point or something, I don’t know,” Darkwa said. “As far as atmosphere, like I said before, it’s training camp, it’s going to happen. There are going to be hits, there are going to be some things here and there, some scuffles here and there, but you just got to be prepared for it.”

In his fifth training camp, guard Justin Pugh has had his share of disagreements with defenders, including one with linebacker Devon Kennard Wednesday. He said after practice, the players shake hands and move on.

When asked if he had any advice for Bisnowaty, Pugh smiled.