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Dallas Cowboys linebacker Demarvion Overshown, left, and outside linebacker Sam Williams, center, fight, with New Orleans Saints tight end Moliki Matavao, below, during an NFL football joint practice, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
New Orleans Saints wide receiver Ronnie Bell, top, fights with Dallas Cowboys cornerback Derion Kendrick during an NFL football joint practice, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker Sam Williams, top, fight with New Orleans Saints tight end Moliki Matavao during an NFL football joint practice, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
New Orleans Saints wide receiver Ronnie Bell, center, fights with members of the Dallas Cowboys, including safety Cobie Durant (2) and cornerback Derion Kendrick (15) during an NFL football joint practice, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
Joint practices are out of control when an easygoing, fun-loving guy like Jameis Winston is throwing punches and getting decked in the middle of a brawl.<\/p>\n
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Tempers have been flaring around the NFL as many teams are practicing against each other ahead of preseason games.<\/p>\n
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Winston was at the center of a fight between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints were fined $500,000 apiece by the NFL after a brawl-filled joint practice Tuesday.<\/p>\n
There were several skirmishes between the San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans last week that led to two players from each team being tossed out of practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a game, so you don\u2019t have the same, quite, guardrails on it,\u201d Giants coach John Harbaugh said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a violent game. And so, in this sort of an environment, you have these rules of engagement that aren\u2019t really rules of the game. And then somebody perceives somebody else goes over the line, or they do go over the line, and somebody needs to protect somebody, and that\u2019s where it goes. And I think as long as it doesn\u2019t get out of control where we get a violent type of situation, it\u2019s fine. We decided that anybody that threw a punch in those scrimmages would be treated like the game.”<\/p>\n
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The joint sessions have become the preferred way to give starters valuable repetitions in a competitive environment. Most coaches prefer to keep key starters or all their starters, in some cases, out of preseason games so facing opponents within a controlled setting has become a priority for most teams. Overall, 28 of 32 teams are holding joint practices this year.<\/p>\n
Fights are not considered OK during joint practices <\/p>\n
Coaches have warned their players about fighting, making it clear it\u2019s disruptive and counterproductive.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe don\u2019t tolerate it,\u201d Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. \u201cThe way I explain it to the players, every time we do one of these \u2014 you have 90 teammates in camp. Now you\u2019ve got 180 teammates. We\u2019re just working against each other. OK, they\u2019re in a different jersey, a different helmet. We\u2019re not here to fight. We\u2019re here to get better as an individual and a team, and hopefully we\u2019ll all treat it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philadelphia held two joint sessions with the New England Patriots this week. There was one minor scuffle, prompting Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley to say: “I hate joint practices, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore times than not nothing good comes out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you have the work, it\u2019s good, but then you get the pushing, the shoving and someone says this about you and it\u2019s \u2018I don\u2019t know about that but you\u2019re this.\u2019 It\u2019s immature when you get to that level. I have to do a better job, too, because I\u2019m a little troublemaker sometimes, but I was good this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fights are inevitable considering players are going at each other, talking trash, grinding in the hot sun on humid days.<\/p>\n
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It takes plenty of discipline to show restraint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love joint practices, being able to play in our defense, in our style against another team,\u201d Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker said. \u201cYeah, the cons are fighting, but at the end of the day, we\u2019re professionals. … As long as you can play the game at a high level and respect the other team, fights won\u2019t happen.”<\/p>\n
Respect a key to keeping joint workouts professional <\/p>\n
Baker said teams are supposed to maintain the same etiquette in joint practices as they do against each other.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf the ball is in the air and you see the receiver in a compromising position, and I\u2019m coming downhill on the ball, I\u2019m not going to hit him,\u201d Baker said. \u201cI\u2019m going to let him catch it and tap off. I might talk my little (trash) and tell him, \u2018You probably wouldn\u2019t have caught that.\u2019 But you\u2019re being a professional. You wouldn\u2019t want to hurt your own teammates so you don\u2019t want to hurt the opposing team in a practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fights occur when players breach that etiquette or hit a quarterback.<\/p>\n
“You should never get close to the QB,\u201d Baker said. \u201cQuarterbacks are the most important position in football. Losing a quarterback in practice against another team \u2014 that’s something where fights will definitely happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills were quite chippy during their joint practice but avoided fights. Browns coach Todd Monken said players are told they\u2019ll be tossed out of practice for throwing punches. In some cases, they might end up playing in the preseason game as punishment when they normally weren\u2019t going to suit up.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere has got to be an accountability and a discipline to what we do,\u201d Monken said. \u201cBut I also want the guys to have a mindset and a personality while they\u2019re out there as well. It\u2019s a fine line.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writers David Brandt, Josh Dubow, Dan Gelston, John Wawrow and Stephen Whyno contributed.<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys linebacker Demarvion Overshown, left, and outside linebacker Sam Williams, center, fight, with New Orleans Saints tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[144149,144150,56236,144148,23681,202,196,42093,42094,91427,942,82,84,83,32637,15070,18884],"class_list":["post-413144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-budda-baker","tag-jameis-winston","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-nfl-fights-joint-practices-cowboys-saints","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32000-ap-online-football-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40789-ap-louisiana-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-saquon-barkley","tag-todd-monken","tag-vic-fangio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}