Cowboys, Saints fined $500K each for brawls in joint practice - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — The Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints have each been fined $500,000 for multiple fights that occurred at Tuesday's joint practice.

The NFL said on Tuesday that the Competition Committee has made sportsmanship a point of emphasis over the years, including sportsmanship at joint practices and the league told every team about that emphasis this summer.

«All clubs were reminded by memo prior to training camp of their responsibility in preventing unsportsmanlike behavior at joint practices that has the potential to result in injury,» a league spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

Fights occurred on both fields after the teams split up to work their offenses and defenses against each other. Punches were thrown on both fields, and play had to be stopped multiple times on one field due to Saints offensive players and Cowboys defensive players rushing over to join the fray. One player tossed a helmet in one instance and in another skirmish, a player was body-slammed to the ground.

Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and Saints coach Kellen Moore discussed at one point whether to call practice early, but they decided to end the session on time.

Schottenheimer said earlier on Tuesday that the NFL had requested the film of the practice to review for potential fines. While the team fines are appealable, it's unclear yet whether the teams will appeal. Fines for specific players fighting would likely fall to their respective teams.

«Obviously there was a lot of non-football stuff in that joint practice unfortunately,» Moore said on Thursday. «We had a clean one today [against the Rams], we had a clean one with Jacksonville last week. We had some really good work overall.