Joel Bitonio doesn’t recall his prior experiences with joint practice sessions fondly. The Browns left guard, along with Christian Kirksey the senior member of the team at just six years, has unpleasant recollections of the last two times the Browns squared off in practices with another team.
It’s been a few years since the Browns have done joint practices. The team did duals with the Buffalo Bills in 2015 and went to the blast furnace that is Tampa Bay’s training camp in 2016.
Neither went well, according to the Browns longtime starting left guard.
“The Bills, there were a ton of fights, and we didn’t get as much practice time as we wanted to,” Bitonio said on Monday via Ohio.com. “And the Bucs, it was like 110 degrees. I just remember it was the one time in my life when I thought, ‘I just need to get through this practice.’ All I could think of was playing the next play because it was so hot.”
The weather should be acceptable in Indianapolis. Forecasts indicate partly cloudy skies with highs in the low 80s, so similar to Cleveland. As for the fisticuffs, time will tell. But coach Freddie Kitchens has cracked down hard on fights in Browns practices in an emphasis to “not practice penalties”.
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