Giants camp fight erupts, with Jon Feliciano in middle, after Saquon Barkley lowers shoulder on Aaron Robinson

Giants running back Saquon Barkley, center Jon Feliciano, linebackers Tae Crowder and Cam Brown, and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson set off and escalated a melee at Monday’s sweltering hot practice in East Rutherford.

The fight’s highlights featured Feliciano going full WWE, seemingly trying to knee Crowder in the head or gut and then sucker-punching Brown. Johnson, a coach, shoved and challenged Brown, too.

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Rookie tight end Daniel Bellinger said when the dust had cleared, head coach Brian Daboll told the players and coaches that “losing teams do that.”

Feliciano, for example, would have been ejected from an NFL regular season game, if not suspended for another.

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There was a major lack of discipline on the field Monday with co-owner John Mara looking on in the 95 degree heat.

“We’ve got to come out there and be physical, but we’ve got to be smart, as well,” Bellinger said.

The first-string defense had been dominating the offense all day. None of the fight’s main perpetrators were made available to the media. The leaders who did talk – defenders Jihad Ward and Julian Love – did their best to airbrush the situation.

But the fight was ugly at points. This was not your typical training camp brawl, but the players played it down afterward.

“I don’t think any of us has crossed the line,” Love said, when asked about Feliciano. “We know Jon and he’s not crossing the line at all. It gets intense. Things happen and we’re gonna respond. And so they can expect that. We can expect that from them.

“We don’t take it personally or at heart,” Love added. “Everybody’s in the locker room right now going on as normal. But yeah, you defend your guys. That’s what it comes down to.”

It seemed Barkley was the one who started it.

Barkley lowered his shoulder on a run and knocked down corner Aaron Robinson on the second level. Safety Xavier McKinney had words for Barkley.

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The defense seemed to believe the running back had violated that period’s reduced thud tempo. And while Barkley immediately subbed out, that lit the fuse for the fight three plays later.

“I’m excited to see him run that hard,” Love said. “That’s something we want. … It got a little hot out there obviously. But when you cool off in the locker room, that’s the energy we want to see from him. I know we won’t be caught sleeping again when that comes.”

Crowder took it upon himself to retaliate for the defense, tackling backup running backs Antonio Williams and Gary Brightwell hard to the ground and giving them extra shoves.

So Feliciano took exception to Crowder’s roughness. And that set up a Crowder vs. Feliciano shoving match escalated their frustrations into a full-fledged fight.

Feliciano grabbed Crowder’s head and pulled, as they fought for leverage, then seemingly tried to knee Crowder in either the head or gut. Players charged from the sidelines as the fight boiled over.

Brown eventually dragged Feliciano out of the pile. And Johnson, the offensive line coach, didn’t like that, shoving Brown and getting in the linebacker’s face.

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Feliciano eventually rose to his feet and sucker-punched Brown from the side as Johnson was jawing with him. And that infuriated inside linebackers coach John Egorugwu, who had to be restrained from retaliating against Johnson.

“This ain’t nothing. This jawn’s small, man,” Ward said. “People gonna look at it like ohhhh, it’s crazy. But ain’t nothing going on. We’re gonna laugh at it in the locker room. That’s all I got to say on that one.”

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Then Ward smirked: “But I didn’t see nothing.”

Asked about a player like Barkley not sticking to a practice’s tempo, Ward said: “You’re gonna get some bangs and little thuds but gotta get ready for the season. We can’t really do much tackling wise, so we just gotta get ready. Gotta have awareness.”

He did like seeing Crowder take charge in the middle.

“Tae is doing a hell of a job,” Ward said. “That’s my guy. I love him. He gets it. He’s ready to turn it up. I can’t wait for him to get loose out there. He’s running the show.”

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And Love said this is what coordinator Wink Martindale wants to see: a defense that doesn’t back down.

“Things got intense for a minute out there today, but we responded well,” Love said. “And that’s all he wants to see. We want to do the right things and keep our guys safe. Not do anything dumb or get anybody hurt.

“But we aren’t gonna go out sorry,” Love added. “That’s one thing.”