Cowboys and Saints fined $500,000 apiece by NFL after brawl-filled joint practice
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints have been fined $500,000 apiece by the NFL after their brawl-filled joint practice Tuesday.
The league announced the fines Thursday after requesting video of the tumultuous workout at the Cowboys ' training camp base in Oxnard, California.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his team will appeal the “pretty stiff” fine, even though he understood why the NFL issued such a hefty penalty. The Cowboys also plan to fine their own players who were involved in the fracases.
“The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship — including at joint practices — a point of emphasis over the past several years,” the league said in a statement. “All clubs were remined by memo prior to training camp of their responsibility in preventing unsportsmanlike behavior at joint practices that has the potential to result in injury.”
Players from the Cowboys and the Saints threw punches during several skirmishes throughout the joint practice, which was conducted in uncommonly hot, humid weather in the coastal town.
A lowlight of the brouhaha was Saints tight end Brock Rechsteiner’s body slam of Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson in a move worthy of Rechsteiner’s father, pro wrestler Scott Steiner. Saints center Erik McCoy threw a Cowboys helmet high in the air during one scrap, while McCoy and Cowboys linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku threw punches at each other in an ugly sequence that ended with Ezeiruaku getting thrown out of practice for the second time in camp.
“All of that makes it a real focal point of the league to stay within good sport, and the taking of helmets off and swinging and hitting and that type of thing is not good for anybody, and it’s certainly not what we want to represent to our fans as a league or as a team,” Jones said Thursday in Oxnard. “And so it’s understandable how they’re coming with real severe fines.”
Jones said the size of the NFL's financial penalty “does make the point that it’s a serious matter. … It really emphasizes the league’s intent to control it from the very top, which when they start dealing out those kinds of fines, they get your attention.”
Saints coach Kellen Moore and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer nearly called off the practice early after repeated post-whistle scuffles. Schottenheimer called the workout “a little chippy. Not the way we like to do business.”
“Obviously there was non-football stuff in that joint practice, unfortunately,” Moore said Thursday before the fines were announced.
Jones indicated Ezeiruaku, who started nine games and had two sacks last season as a rookie, is one of the Cowboys players who will be fined.
“Well, I think that you have to have consequences, and that needs to register,” Jones said. “In other words, whether you’re playing a game or out here in society, if you aren’t sensitive about consequences of your behavior, then you’ll be brought to your knees pretty quick.”
The Saints have left Louisiana for California this week, conducting a few practices on the coast before a preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday at SoFi Stadium.
New Orleans had no scuffles or disciplinary issues Thursday during another joint practice with the Rams at Los Angeles' training complex in Woodland Hills. The teams still wrapped up their workout earlier than scheduled because the Saints had already done extensive work this week before a handful of players left this practice early with injuries that currently appear minor.
Moore said he spoke to his players about professionalism before they visited the Rams. New Orleans also had no issues last week when it hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars for a joint practice.
“We acknowledged some of the things that happened on Tuesday,” Moore said. “Thought our guys were focused, Rams were focused, and it was a really good, clean practice.”
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AP freelance reporter Dan Greenspan in Oxnard, California, contributed to this report.
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