Offensive and defensive lines forced to run sprints to stop fighting

You can’t fight with each other if you’re already out of breath.

That seems to be the mentality that the Washington Redskins coaching staff is taking on Wednesday mornings’ practice after a skirmish turned into a rather large fight between players on Tuesday.

When mouths started to run on Wednesday, reports are that head coach Jay Gruden put a quick end to the jabbering and had his offensive and defensive lineman run something other than their mouths.

He assigned them to sprints on one of the side fields, probably assuming that once they were finished running, they’d be too tired to talk.

Fight was an extension of this. Both lines sent to run sprints on the other field by Gruden. You could see this was coming from individual drills… #redskins https://t.co/qEwo1Hatji

— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) July 31, 2019

And on the third rep, a fight broke out with Geron Christian and Caleb Brantley. Jay Gruden has had enough, OL and DL are running sprints, said team will just do 7-on-7s now #HTTR

— Rhiannon Walker (@InstantRHIplay) July 31, 2019

As expected another skirmish. Flowers and Moses involved in something with DL. Lots of heat. Gruden pissed.

— John Keim (@john_keim) July 31, 2019

Fighting had Gruden pissed. Coaches don’t mind that stuff in spots but not when it disrupts practice

— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) July 31, 2019

Gruden making OL and DL run sprints on side field. …Fights might be fun for fans but was getting in way of work. So not good for coaches.

— John Keim (@john_keim) July 31, 2019

They’ve got work to do. They can’t afford time spent fighting. They also can’t afford for someone to get hurt. When it doesn’t dissipate quickly and they don’t move on to the next play, they’ve gotta audible. Gruden did.

— Craig Hoffman (@CraigHoffman) July 31, 2019

If all works out during team periods, it seems that Gruden may have found a solution to the recent infighting in practice.