There’s nothing the NFL hates more than bad headlines and the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints gave them plenty when the two teams starting fighting in joint practice this week. In response, the league is punishing both sides.
According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, the league has fined the two teams $500,000 each for “actions that took place at the joint practice” this week. Per the report, it comes on the heels of clubs being previously warned to limit all unsportsmanlike behavior at such joint practices.
“NFL fined the Cowboys and Saints $500,000 each for what it called ‘the actions that took place at the joint practice between the teams earlier this week.’ The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship – including at joint practices – a point of emphasis over the past several years. All clubs were reminded by memo prior to training camp of their responsibility in preventing unsportsmanlike behavior at joint practices that has the potential to result in injury,” Schefter wrote on X.
The teams must have known that a punishment was forthcoming after Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer revealed that the league had requested all film of the practice and the incidents in question.
ESPN previously reported that two fights broke out between the Saints offense and the Cowboys defense during the fight and that there were “at least seven” throughout the day.
The most noteworthy of those brawls saw Saints tight end Brock Rechsteiner deliver a Suplex-type throw of Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson.
Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
Fans aren’t happy.
As with almost any NFL decision, fans didn’t exactly care for it and made their thoughts known in Schefter’s comments on X.
“So is the purpose of [fining] the teams to make them hold their players more accountable instead of just disciplining the players involved directly?” one user asked.
“That’s it? 500k is like 50 cents for a team that has billions,” wrote another.
“what??? man we have gotten sooooooo soft as a society it’s pathetic,” a third wrote.
The Cowboys and Saints have now been made an example of. The rest of the league had better take note or the next punishment for fighting could be way worse.
