Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie delivered the hit of the summer yesterday. Unfortunately for the Jets, it came against one of his teammates in practice.
Cromartie drilled wide receiver Stephen Hill, knocking him to the ground where Hill, at first appeared injured and took a while to gather himself and get up. The hit occurred during a two-minute drill when defenders are supposed to lightly hit ball carriers and not knock them to the ground. Geno Smith threw the ball to Hill at the goal line and Cromartie ran full speed into him, delivering a blow with his shoulder.
Offensive players, led by center Nick Mangold, immediately charged at Cromartie and screamed at him. Cromartie yelled back, “Don’t cry. Play ball.” Hill returned to practice and was not injured. Coach Rex Ryan did not discipline Cromartie on the field.
“I was disappointed because we have to protect each other,” Ryan said.“Stephen [Hill] was running full speed and all that.Cro actually came off his coverage and made the hit, and again I don’t think he intended to certainly hurt Stephen, but still we have got to be smarter.”
When reporters spoke to players a few hours later, tempers had cooled. “It’s a football play,” Mangold said. “Things happen. We’ll move on.”
Cromartie was not in the locker room. Hill said he was fine.
“I have nothing against Cro or anything,” Hill said. “I even talked to him about it and he was like he didn’t mean to do it. I said look this is football, stuff like this is going to happen.”
* RB Joe McKnight has practiced fully the past two days and said he is ready for Saturday night’s game against the Giants. He said he knows he has to impress the coaches.
“Yeah. Shoot, Bilal [Powell] had a good game last week. Chris [Ivory] is back in the rotation. I’ve got to go out and make some plays,” McKnight said.
* RB Mike Goodson remains absent for camp for an unspecified “personal reason.” Ryan would not address whether it is starting to seem unrealistic Goodson will be ready when the season opens.
“Again, I’m going to say really what I’ve said about Goodson before,” Ryan said, and what he has said before is nothing. “I’m not going to add anything to it right now. We’ll address that at the appropriate time.”
* Rookie CB Dee Milliner (calf) missed practice again. … NT Kenrick Ellis (back) has not practiced since Aug. 11, but said he will be ready for the regular season. … FB Lex Hilliard was placed on season-ending injured reserve. A source said he needs surgery to repair a broken shoulder blade suffered in Tuesday’s practice. … WR Marcus Rucker was signed.