"I'm just going to say these guys, look, we have to make the right decisions"
Wednesday 28 October 2020 11:09, UK
New York Giants head coach Joe Judge has vowed to keep things internal when dealing with the fallout of an incident this past weekend when multiple players were caught on video without masks at a Manhattan bar.
Among those that could be seen in a collection of video snippets were quarterback Daniel Jones as well as running back Saquon Barkley, who is set to undergo knee surgery this week.
The Giants were off over the weekend after losing 22-21 to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night.
"I'm not going to go into all of the different things of the optics and all," Judge said Tuesday.
"I'm just going to say these guys, look, we have to make the right decisions. I think what they try to do as a team on a night off, kind of assimilate a bye week if you would, go out to dinner and try to hang together as a team, that's something they were looking to do, kind of stay tight with each other.
"I've had a lot of in-depth conversations with the guys involved, as well as the rest of the team.
"They understand kind of the consequences of anything you do right now in this COVID environment, as well as the public eye, of how they're looked at and how we have to be careful. We have to make sure we make the right decisions."
The Las Vegas Raiders were reportedly put under investigation by the NFL last week after violating COVID-19 restrictions.
Multiple players were fined earlier this season, including quarterback Derek Carr, for attending a local fundraiser without masks.
Raiders offensive lineman Trent Brown tested positive last week, forcing the entire starting offensive line into quarantine leading up to a 45-20 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
An earlier COVID-19 outbreak within the Tennessee Titans organisation led to 24 positive cases, resulting in the team being fined $350,000 last week. Reports suggest the Raiders could be facing an even steeper fine.
"We're just going to deal with everything internally right now in terms of that part of the situation," Judge reiterated.
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