The National Football League fined the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints $50万 each following multiple bench-clearing brawls during a joint training camp practice in Oxnard, California. According to reports from Reuters, the clashes escalated throughout the day as team emotions boiled over across the practice fields, drawing massive financial penalties for a total of $100만.
Escalating Clashes on the Practice Fields
The joint sessions were designed to sharpen both squads ahead of the upcoming regular season, but the atmosphere turned hostile early. According to league and media accounts, the altercations began when the offense and defense matched up across separate fields. A skirmish on one field quickly dragged in players from the other, turning routine drills into chaotic brawls.
Players traded punches and hurled equipment as tensions reached a boiling point. Reuters noted that one participant violently flung a helmet across the turf, while another sequence featured a player being grabbed and forcefully driven into the ground.
Wrestling Moves in the Trenches
Among the focal points of the scuffles was New Orleans Saints rookie wide receiver Brock Reksteiner. Reksteiner carries a notable pedigree as the son of legendary professional wrestler Scott Steiner and the nephew of Rick Steiner, both WWE Hall of Famers.
Leaning heavily into his family background, Reksteiner brought actual professional wrestling maneuvers onto the football field. According to NFL accounts, Reksteiner grabbed Dallas safety Jalen Thompson, hoisted him directly into the air, and slammed him onto the turf using a classic suplex technique.
Coaches Weigh Training Cancellation
The continuous violence nearly prompted a complete shutdown of the joint session. Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer and New Orleans head coach Kellen Moore actively discussed pulling their squads off the field before the workout concluded.
Schottenheimer admitted after the session that a few more incidents would have forced him to cancel the practice entirely. “Nobody wants this situation. We wanted to get our work in,” Schottenheimer said, adding that while things calmed down in the latter half, the opening segment was unacceptably rough. Moore similarly expressed frustration, noting that too many events occurred that had nothing to do with actual football performance.
League Discipline and Precedent
The hefty $50만 fines levied against each franchise reflect the NFL’s strict stance on sportsmanship during preseason workouts. League officials stated that maintaining order during joint practices has been a primary administrative focus over recent years.
Prior to the opening of training camps, the league distributed an explicit memo reminding all organizations that individual franchises bear direct responsibility for preventing dangerous, unsportsmanlike behavior during inter-team workouts.
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