Sources: Brandon Marshall, Sheldon Richardson got into verbal spat after Jets’ loss to Chiefs
New York Jets' wide receiver Brandon Marshall before the Week 4 game against the Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. Credit: Lee S Weissman / Lee S. Weissman
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Frustrations apparently reached a boiling point after the Jets’ lopsided loss to the Chiefs three weeks ago.
Sources confirmed to Newsday that Brandon Marshall and Sheldon Richardson got into a verbal spat in the locker room after the Jets’ 24-3 road loss on Sept. 25.
ESPN.com was first to report the incident.
Though the exchange wasn’t physical, it caught the attention of coach Todd Bowles.
“I was right there, I heard it. It was loud,” Bowles told ESPN.com Thursday. “Yell down there, yell down here. It was no more than a normal training camp deal. It wasn’t anything significant . . . There were a bunch of people who had words because everybody was [ticked] off.
Bowles said he discussed the verbal spat with the team immediately. “I took care of it right there,” he said. “I addressed the team and I addressed the two guys. It will not happen again.”
One source said the argument was rooted in players’ frustrations over the loss to the Chiefs — the first of what would be four straight for the Jets (1-5).
“There were no residual effects, no physicality,” Bowles told ESPN.com. “After the game, everybody was [ticked] off and you throw stuff. They should be [ticked] off, but not at each other. It was just one of those things.”
Richardson was excused from practice on Thursday for a “personal issue,” according to Bowles, but Marshall told ESPN.com that it was just an argument between “two Alpha males . . . two bulls.”
The two cleared the air the next day, he said.
“There are moments in teams where you push each other and there’s tension and the best teams find a way through it,” the star wide receiver told ESPN.com. “ . . . You guys understand how emotional and how intense the game is. When you come in the locker room after a loss like that and you’re looking at each other, trying to problem-solve, it may not always be the right time. Sometimes you have to give it a day or so for everyone to calm down and cool off and say, ‘OK, what do we need to do to solve it?’ ”
