THIS Is the Cromartie Hit That Had The Team And Media In An Uproar?

Yahoo – According to Michael Fensom of The Star-Ledger, Cromartie delivered a hit on Hill during a goal-line drill that was so vicious, it left his teammate gasping for air on the ground. That eventually led to a scuffle between offensive and defensive players. Cromartie was confronted by Nick Mangold, the Jets center, after practice. Mangold did not appreciate Cromartie’s over-aggressive play, and let him know about it. Cromartie, who was wearing a dark-tinted visor on his facemask, had a simple reply: “Don’t cry, play ball.” Those are probably not the words to put on an apology card from Hallmark, but Hill said he was not injured on the play, nor did he have any resentment toward his teammate. Considering Santonio Holmes is still recovering from a foot injury, and no timetable for his return, Cromartie’s unnecessary action could have made things worse for New York’s offense if the receiver was injured. Jets coach Rex Ryan agreed. “I don’t think he intended to certainly hurt Stephen, but still, we’ve got to be smarter,” Ryan said, according to The Star-Ledger. “We have to take care of each other.”

Listen I know I’m not the Man of Steel. We all know that. That hit right there would have killed me. And at the end of the day if Stephen Hill ended up injured, theres no doubt Cro was in the wrong. He’s our only “weapon” for Sanchez to throw too. If you want to call him that.

But goodness gracious the way this hit was talked about, I woulda thought he James Harrison’d the dude. I fully expected some helmet to helmet, lower the shoulder, launching action. I expected helmets flying off and golf carts taking dudes off the field. Hill got his bell rung and at the end of the day that shit shouldn’t be happening in practice but lets not go too overboard here.

PS – Don’t Cry, Play Ball would absolutely be on a t shirt already if the Jets weren’t about to go 3-13