The joint practice of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday afternoon ended in a massive brawl.
The first practice on Wednesday went without a hitch. However, things went awry in the second practice. Rams head coach Sean McVay and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor have warned their respective teams that they would not tolerate fights in this joint practice.
A #Rams source says the team will handle the matter of Thursday's practice fight with the Bengals internally, with any potential discipline to remain private.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) August 26, 2022
After an increase in altercations at other teams’ joint practices earlier in the week, Bengals safety Vonn Bell said Taylor had received a message from team president Mike Brown about fights.
“You never want to be a headline,” Bell said. “Keep everything clean.”
However, his warning went unheard.
“I knew yesterday was too good to be true,” McVay after the brawl.
keep ya head on a swivel 👀 pic.twitter.com/Oywc3Dt52k
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 25, 2022
The brawl
The brawl started when Bengals’ right tackle La’el Collins and Rams’ outside linebacker Leonard Floyd entered a scuffle during the 11-on-11 period.
Collins threw Floyd’s helmet at Floyd, which sparked a large-scale brawl between players from both teams. The players on both teams were pushing, shoving, and punching. During the second significant bout, Collins and Floyd were involved in further combat.
Collins had been engaged in conflicts before the final brawl that ended the practice. He appeared to be a part of two other fights with a Rams defender. On one occasion, Bengals backup lineman D’Ante Smith took his spot in a team exercise.
This is the original video. 👷🏽♂️🪓@espn pic.twitter.com/wmou3mC0bH
— MrPinkNFT.eth / Web3 Jedi (@MrPinkNFT) August 25, 2022
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was the only Los Angeles player speaking to the media. He was facing the Bengals’ starting defense on the adjacent practice field when the brawl broke out and thus could not share further details.
“Emotions run high,” Taylor said. “We’ve been working together for two days now. That’s just some really competitive guys get into it a little bit.”
Taylor said that the practice ended when there were just three plays left in the 11-on-11 format.
The two teams have a day off on Friday before playing their last preseason game on Saturday in Cincinnati. In the championship game, neither team is anticipated to use its starters. Taylor said that he didn’t expect any hostility to persist.
“It got a little scuffley, and so we just called it,” Taylor said. “We were in the last period. We got two really good days of work in. Was it worth getting the extra couple of plays? No. So we called it off. We got two good days of work in and we’ll go play on Saturday.”
#Rams Aaron Donald swinging two #Bengals helmets in the mix. pic.twitter.com/y92A0gNskd
— Sam Greene (@SGdoesit) August 25, 2022
When asked about what started the brawl, Taylor declined to answer.
“I won’t get into what happened,” Taylor said. “It’s over. We got two good days of work in.”
McVay remarked that he didn’t want to draw attention to the altercation and that sometimes it was simply two teams defending each other.
“I just see guys swinging and some guys have helmets on, some don’t,” McVay said. “There’s a scrum. You just never know what can occur. And my biggest concern is just unnecessary injuries for people that we’re counting on, whether it’s for our team or the other team.”
According to Jeremy Fowler from ESPN, the Rams will handle the situation privately, and any potential punishment will stay confidential.
“The incident will be addressed internally, and any discipline will remain in-house,” a Rams spokesperson said on Friday.
Statement from a Rams spokesperson regarding whether Aaron Donald or any Rams players would be disciplined by team for their role in Thursday’s fight with the Bengals: “The incident will be addressed internally, and any discipline will remain in-house.”
— Sarah Barshop (@sarahbarshop) August 26, 2022