The Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals ended their joint practice early Thursday after multiple fights erupted.
Rams all-professional defensive lineman Aaron Donald swung his swing around at least one Bengals player’s helmet during a skirmish, reports say.
“It’s kind of confusing, so we just call it,” Bengals coach Zach Taylor said. “We were in the last period. We had two days of really good work. Would it be worth playing a few more games? No. So we canceled. We had two days of good work and we’d play Saturday.”
Rams head coach Sean McVeigh told reporters he wasn’t sure what caused the fight.
“I think there are situations where teams guard each other,” McVeigh said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Fortunately, my understanding is that no one was hurt, and we’re going to move on. Not doing a bigger deal than now. Not going to point fingers.”
Taylor refused to say that What caused this quarrel.
“I’m not going to talk about what happened, it’s over, we have two days to work and everyone is healthy,” Taylor said.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reports that clubs, not the league, are responsible for overseeing player behavior in practices. As such, Pelisero added, it’s unlikely the league will discipline Donald or any other player for their role in Wednesday’s chaos. However, teams can discipline players for their practice behavior.
Teams that met in Super Bowl LVI replayed Wednesday in the first of two games, and the game went smoothly. On Thursday, however, multiple battles erupted on the court — with Bengals offensive lineman Rael Collins and Rams linebacker Leonard Floyd reportedly in the middle of the two larger games center of.
At one point, Collins reportedly threw Floyd’s helmet at Floyd, causing a large number of players on both teams to punch, yell, shove shove. Collins and Floyd fought again in their second major fight.
Finally, the coaches have seen enough. After the two teams parted ways, they canceled the remaining practice sessions.
The two teams will meet in the preseason final on Saturday.
