Being a professional athlete can be cruel. One day you’re riding high as a hero and the next you could be viewed as a villain. Right now in the NFL, perhaps nobody exemplifies this quite like New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.
It didn’t seem to take long for Jones to go from exalted successor of Eli Manning to somebody fans were eager to exile from East Rutherford. While fickle fandom in New York is par for the course, this seems particularly unfair to Jones. In his five years in the league, he has only played in 60 games. While last year was a disaster in which he suffered two severe injuries (including a torn ACL) the prior season was his best, resulting in a playoff victory.
Yet, Jones continues to be disrespected. There was speculation that the Giants regretted the big contract they gave him. The team talked to Russell Wilson about potentially competing with Jones for the starting position. There were numerous rumors that they’d be taking a quarterback in the draft. He doesn’t seem to have the full confidence of team executives. Some people believe backup Drew Locke should be the starter. And, perhaps most insulting of all, Jones only received a rating of 71 for Madden 25, which somehow doesn’t even put him in the top 32 QBs in the league.
It seems as though Jones has had enough, though. In a joint practice with the Detroit Lions on Aug. 5, the typically mild-mannered QB started a fight. After one play, Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill took exception with Giants center Greg Van Roten and pushed him to the ground. Almost immediately, Jones came over and shoved McNeil in the back, which led to a scuffle. It didn’t take long for Jones to get pulled out of the pile and when he tried to get back in, a coach escorted him to the sideline.
Afterwards, Jones said he was standing up for his teammates and that he liked the “good intensity and competitive spirit.” Coming off ACL surgery, however, not everybody was happy to see him involved in a scrum.
“Daniel was out there with it?” asked Giants edge-rusher Brian Burns when told what happened. “Yeah. I’m going to need him to back up. Let his O-line handle that.” But Burns added that he wasn’t surprised, calling Jones a competitor and fighter.
If Jones doesn’t have a good season, it could very well be his last in New York. While starting a little melee during a practice doesn’t mean much in the long run, the fire he’s showing should be very encouraging to fans and it may signal that he’s ready to prove all the doubters wrong.
