EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was a relatively benign punishment on the surface, especially considering most NFL starters would gladly skip a preseason game, but Bears coach Matt Nagy made his point.
Not only did Nagy bench right guard Kyle Long against the Giants on Friday, he left him home after Long lost his mind during a wild fight at practice Wednesday. Being singled out and separated from the team is a meaningful consequence, and it cost Long more than just a quick trip to New Jersey.
Make no mistake: This would sting any player.
It was the first significant disciplinary issue in Nagy’s year-plus as a head coach, and he made the right call.
Fighting in practice is fairly normal, specifically in the seemingly endless trek through the preseason, but Long took it too far.
His scuffle with rookie defensive end Jalen Dalton turned ugly when Long got hold of Dalton’s helmet and began beating him with it — totally out of line by any standards — then hurling it as far as he could.
Nagy ejected him from practice, then decided to send a more serious message by shredding his boarding pass the next day. The Bears held out 26 players against the Giants, but 25 had a good excuse. The rest of their starting offensive line enjoyed the game from the sideline at MetLife Stadium.
Dalton stayed in that practice, by the way, and played Friday. Nagy can tolerate some run-of-the-mill pushing and shoving, maybe even a punch. Long and Akiem Hicks got into it Sunday, then Prince Amukamara and Javon Wims tangled Tuesday, and let that go.
The sticking point for Long is that the rage he showed Wednesday would’ve certainly gotten him thrown out of a regular season game and very likely suspended. That’s something Nagy can’t abide, and if anyone in that locker room needed to have that reinforced, it was this guy.
It wasn’t a total surprise that Long, who has a reputation for being a hothead, had an outburst on that scale. As a rookie in 2013, he started kicking at a Rams player during a fracas, and who knows what would’ve happened if his brother, Chris, hadn’t run in from the opposing sideline to pull him away?
The fight with Dalton was the first time Long has done something like that under Nagy, though, and he learned the hard way that his coach’s “Be You” mantra has its limits.
Feel free to “Be You” so long as it doesn’t hurt the group. “Be You” does not cover going on The Today Show after you miss a game-winning field goal or swinging a helmet like a madman at a helmet-less teammate.
By taking this stance against one of his best and most prominent players, Nagy set a precedent that will resonate in the locker room.
It was a smart and reasonable penalty, too. Remember when the Browns laughably made wide receiver Antonio Callaway play a preseason game as punishment? That’s foolish. That, by unnecessary risk of injury, had the potential to hurt the team as a whole.
Nagy took a more prudent path with Long, who likely will have to address this with his teammates before returning. The Bears’ next practice is Tuesday, and there’s a good chance Long will be a bit more levelheaded by then.
The whole team should come back refreshed and a little calmer after getting a few days off, and the Bears probably need that. Training camp was sailing along peacefully until they had three straight practices interrupted by tussles, culminating in Long vs. Dalton. This will get their minds back where Nagy needs them.
