{"id":978835,"date":"2026-08-21T02:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/978835\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:15:17","slug":"giants-dolphins-joint-practice-sees-multiple-skirmishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/978835\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants-Dolphins joint practice sees multiple skirmishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Before the teams hit the field, both head coaches laid down the law.<\/p>\n

John Harbaugh warned if any of his Giants players got into a fight and threw a punch they would be benched.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hafley said he would be \u201creally, really disappointed\u201d if any of his Dolphins players got into an altercation.<\/p>\n

Well, Thursday\u2019s joint practice was not the melee-filled session that some other teams (Jets-Buccaneers<\/a> and Cowboys-Saints<\/a>) engaged in this summer, but it did not go off without a hitch.<\/p>\n

There were a few skirmishes and Harbaugh did make good on his promise.<\/p>\n

Giants wide receiver Calvin Austin III took exception to getting hit out of bounds, and that sparked a fight that included quarterback Jameis Winston getting punched and the players on the far field racing over the way relief pitchers come out of the bullpen to join in the proceedings. <\/p>\n

\"ReceiverReceiver Calvin Austin runs a drill during the Giants-Dolphins joint practice on Aug. 20, 2026 in Miami Gardens, Fla. AP<\/p>\n

Kayvon Thibodeaux shoved a Miami offensive lineman to the ground, and Abdul Carter took a shot at offensive lineman Patrick Paul.<\/p>\n

There was some restraint shown. Giants running back Eric Gray got slammed down by Dolphins linebacker Willie Gay, and that could have led to something, but it did not.<\/p>\n

Giants right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor was replaced by Marcus Mbow late in the practice for not adhering to Harbaugh\u2019s decree.<\/p>\n

\"MiamiMiami Dolphins linebacker Willie Gay Jr. reacts during a joint NFL football practice with the New York Giants on Thursday, August 20, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t really throw a hard punch, but it was to the facemask, and that\u2019ll get you in the game,\u2019\u2019 Harbaugh said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s a 15-yarder at least. So, we decided that we were following those rules of engagement, and that\u2019s what we did with that one.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Overall, Harbaugh was pleased with how his team held it together from an emotional standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a game, so you don\u2019t have the same, quite, guardrails on it,\u2019\u2019 Harbaugh said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a violent game. And so, in this sort of an environment, you have these rules of engagement that aren\u2019t really rules of the game. And then somebody perceives somebody else goes over the line, or they do go over the line, and somebody needs to protect somebody, and that\u2019s where it goes. And I think as long as it doesn\u2019t get out of control where we get a violent type of situation, it\u2019s fine.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

RB Najee Harris, signed two days earlier, took part in this joint practice and made a cut to score a touchdown. <\/p>\n

The former Steelers bruiser tore his Achilles tendon in Week 3 last season playing for the Chargers.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked good,\u2019\u2019 Harbaugh said. <\/p>\n

As expected, Malik Nabers was held out. \u2026 When Eluemunor was taken off the field, he was replaced by Josh Ezeudu, now getting a shot at guard. Ezeudu, though, limped off at the end of practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Before the teams hit the field, both head coaches laid down the law. John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":978836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1012,251,1917,56,2321,2469,6,9],"class_list":["post-978835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-jim-harbaugh","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117131092269389035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/978836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}