Sometimes, football players just like to fight. Washington and Houston were in Richmond, Virginia for a three-day practice session – and they ended things early on Saturday with a major brawl.
There were minor skirmishes on the two fields, but it quickly escalated to a major fight within several plays an hour into practice. The players had to be separated on multiple occasions.
According to ESPN, players sprinted in from the sidelines, punches were thrown, bodies were tossed to the ground and players on each team congratulated themselves for sticking together. Eventually, the coaches decided it would be better if Washington and Houston practised separately.
In classic professional sports style, the Washington players blamed the Texans for starting the fight.
“They came out here trying to be tough guys today, but it didn’t work,” defensive lineman Chris Baker said.
The Texans, meanwhile, said they weren’t going to back down. “[I] definitely don’t want to have a soft football team and I definitely don’t think we have that,” Texans linebacker Brian Cushing said.
Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who did not practice the past two days, said a Texans coach told him some bad feelings stemmed from a hit Friday. Running back Matt Jones ran over Texans cornerback Kevin Johnson at the end of a run, firing up the Washington sideline.
“He either needs to get his weight up or get out of the way,” Hall said of Johnson.
Johnson went low on a tackle of Jordan Campbell on Saturday. Some of the Washington players objected to the hit and ran over to Johnson, and the situation deteriorated from there.
Then something happened involving Kenny Hilliard. Another fight also featured Baker and Texans center Ben Jones.
“The offensive lineman came out and tried to clean me out of the pocket so I asked him what was up,” Baker said. “We got into an argument, I took my helmet off and he hooked me with a right hook and we got to fighting.”
“We were in the run game and we feel they were being overly aggressive, so we got aggressive back and things happened,” Washington tight end Niles Paul said.
The fight came on the final day of a three-day practice session – with nearly 20,000 fans in attendance and ESPN telecasting it live. There was unexpected rain that perhaps added to a tense atmosphere.
“The first two days were outstanding,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said. “It was good work. Going in full pads this day, the rain, the weather, the crowd ... you could see everybody was a little anxious to get the practice in and put a little bit extra in finishing runs. You could sense a little bit, but what happened there you really can’t control.”
Texans coach Bill O’Brien and Gruden tried to defuse the situation. After the minor skirmishes, Gruden said he hoped tempers would settle down and they could continue working.
“It’s intense out there,” O’Brien said. “It’s too bad, but that’s just what happens with two competitive teams.”
Players from both teams didn’t apologise. Instead, they gave some empty platitudes about how great it was that the players stood up for one another.
“They’re my teammates and I’m not going to let anybody take advantage of them,” said Texans receiver Jaelen Strong, who joined the fight. “Whatever I needed to do to step up and protect my teammates, protect the Houston Texans, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Washington, coming off a 4-12 season, tried to spin it positively, too.
“I’m proud of how aggressive we were,” Paul said. “Everyone came and had each other’s back, even when the defense got into it. We all ran to each other’s side. Obviously we can’t do that in a game because everyone would get fined and suspended, but we did what we were supposed to do as a team. You could see us coming together.”
