Ron Rivera initially didn’t sound all that upset about Joe Judge’s disparaging comment seemingly directed toward the Washington Football Team. Rivera said earlier this week he found it “interesting” that Judge’s 11-minute “this-ain’t-some-clown-show” rant included “this ain’t a team that’s having fistfights on the sidelines.”
Judge appeared to be taking a direct shot at Rivera’s team since Washington defensive linemen Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen fought on the bench during a 56-14 loss to the Cowboys in Week 16.
Rivera took a different tone Friday on the Kevin Sheehan Show, rebuking the Giants’ coach.
“To be upfront about it, it disappoints me because for somebody to make a comment like that and not really know the circumstances of the situation we’ve gone through,” Rivera told Sheehen, via Ed Valentine of SB Nation. “I mean for goodness sake, you know if you pay attention to what’s happening you would have found out that we had just had one of our most popular players [Deshazor Everett], a guy that’s very popular amongst his teammates, was in a terrible car accident where his longtime girlfriend is killed. We had another player [Montez Sweat] who lost his brother to murder, and then we had another player who lost another brother.
“There’s reasons why things happen, and to take a shot at people when people are going through what they’re going through, that’s not right. If you don’t know and understand other people’s teams, talk about yourself; talk about your own team. That’s what’s fair.”
Judge since has said his “fistfights on the sidelines’’ and “clown show organizations’’ remarks were not directed at the Washington Football Team.
The Giants host Washington on Sunday in the season finale for both teams.