A relatively civil Ravens preseason got punchy Saturday afternoon.
About midway through the second of two joint practices with the host Indianapolis Colts, Ravens linebacker Albert McClellan and Colts linebacker Antonio Morrison squared off during a special teams drill.
The skirmish ended with McClellan on top of Morrison, throwing a few punches, before both teams converged. McClellan and Morrison were separated as players traded words and shoves.
Later, Indianapolis wide receiver Reece Fountain and Ravens cornerback Stanley Jean-Baptiste threw punches before teammates intervened.
Colts coach Frank Reich opened his post-practice news conference by strongly condemning the fighting.
"I'm not happy about that," he said. "I'm very disappointed in that. You know, we talk about _ that's not what Colts fans need out of this team. We're football players. We're professional football players. We're not fighters. We're not in the MMA. We're not in the cage. We know it's unacceptable. We've got little kids up in the stands. That's not what role models, that's not what we're looking for. We want to find ways to execute football plays and win games.
"So I was very disappointed. That led to a sloppy practice, at least on offense, what I saw. So [I'm] disappointed in that. We have to learn from that. We have to learn from that and learn how to translate that aggression into good, competitive play."
John Harbaugh and Reich stood shoulder to shoulder shortly after the first fight, and Reich said the Ravens coach felt as he did. But in his own news conference, Harbaugh didn't share those sentiments.
"It cracks me up," he said. "Is this a healthy obsession that we all have with fights in training camp practices? It's really nothing, much ado about nothing. It got broken up pretty quickly, and we're moving on."
