Mark Sanchez has never been known as a vocal leader, but a fight at New York Jets training camp brought some fire out of the belly of the fourth-year quarterback.
The drama started when cornerback D'Anton Lynn pushed running back Joe McKnight out of bounds during Monday's early practice. McKnight threw the ball at Lynn, the two went at each other, and soon around 20 players were piled on top of each other.
Sanchez wasn't happy about it, and he spoke up.
"There's no excuse for it. There's no throwing a ball at a teammate," the quarterback said, according to Jenny Vrentas of The Star-Ledger. "There's no shoving a guy out of bounds into the signs."
"One, it doesn't look good and two, it sends the wrong message to our team. We want to take care of our guys," he said. "You throw the ball at somebody in a game, you are going to get 15 yards. I don't know if that's a great habit to get into."
"Rex will address it. That's his call. ... But it's not helping us, that's for sure. I don't see how that makes us any better."
McKnight, likely unaware of Sanchez's feelings, didn't regret throwing the ball at his teammate, via the New York Daily News.
"It's football," McKnight said. "Ain't nothing out of line."
Sanchez's comments are notable, because it's not something we would've heard from him in the past. Now more than ever, Sanchez needs to assert himself as a leader. Consider this part of that effort.
