It is officially the dog days of training camp and tempers boiled have boiled over. In day number one of the Patriots and Bears joint practices, a scrum broke out in an 11-on-11 drill.
But this time, it wasn’t just a no name pushing another no name. It all started when Malcolm Butler was covering Bears Wide Receiver Alshon Jeffery. A few plays went by but nothing major happened the typical smack talking after a play. But after one play
But after one play Both Jeffery and Butler got tangled up holding each other’s jerseys and facemasks well exchanging some words of wisdom with each other. That’s the normal part but then it got even more heated when they both started shoving each other.
It eventually turned into a circle of Bears players around the Butler and Jeffery in the middle. But when you are a Patriots everyone has everyone’s back that’s when big man Jamie Collins came rushing into the circle to help his player out.
That’s when it got real. Both sides started engaging in some shoving in a big circle looking almost like an old time hockey brawl. Most of the Patriots’ starting defensive backs were involved and players like Duron Harmon and Cyrus Jones played big parts in the fight.
The fight would eventually end and Butler was sent to the Patriots locker room where he would remain for the rest of Practice. Jeffrey was not sent to the locker room but was held on the sidelines where he would not participate for the rest of the session.
Another much smaller encounter would happen later on in the session when Martellus Bennett got into a small fight with Bears defensive lineman Lamar Huston. Nate Solder
“It’s the heat,” Patriots free safety Duron Harmon said. “It’s competitive. That’s going to happen time to time. All you can do is move on and just worry about the next play…If we were in a game today, that would cause a 15-yard penalty for each team. Flags, fines, all that stuff. It’s really no place to be put on the football field. We have to really not let our tempers rally up that much and just continue to have discipline.”
And on a side note, Gronkowski left practice early today. Rumors are saying he tweaked something he is expected to be back on the field tomorrow. Today was a very eventful day in Foxboro.
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