Daniel Jones Declines to Address Dining Out Maskless with Teammates

Jones said the matter was handled internally.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones smiled and politely declined to answer any questions regarding a video that went viral over the weekend showing him and running back Saquon Barkley at a social event without a face covering and not practicing social distancing, as recommended by health officials.

“Certainly respect the question and acknowledge the importance of it,” Jones said Thursday. 

“But (head) coach (Joe Judge) spoke about it the other day, and we have a way of handling those things. We’re going to handle it internally here. Our focus is on the Buccaneers this week and being prepared to play Monday night.”

Jones, who also declined to say what, if any discipline had been handed down to him by the Giants or the league, said that he had a PPE (personal protection equipment) with him on the night in question, but the video snippets did not show him wearing it.

“Certainly have to make sure I’m wearing it,” Jones said. “But we’re not going to comment any more on it. Coach has certainly addressed it.”

Despite his declining to comment on the matter, the storyline has resurfaced given the revelation that offensive lineman Will Hernandez has tested positive for the virus, which prompted the team to send home eight players as well as two assistant coaches before the team’s Thursday practice because they were found through contact tracing to have been in close proximity of Hernandez.

Judge expressed optimism that the team would have those players—offensive tackle Cam Fleming, center Nick Gates, offensive lineman Shane Lemieux, center Spencer Pulley and tackle Andrew Thomas—available for Monday‘s game against the Bucs.

“We’ve been fortunate in that there’s really no high-risk guys within the tracer contacts,” Judge said. “We have some precautions we have to take as a team. We’re optimistic to get all these guys back. We’re operating that we’re going to have them back right now.”