NFL Fines Cowboys and Saints After Joint Practice Brawl

The NFL fined the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints 500,000 dollars each after a joint practice in Oxnard, California descended into repeated brawls.

The league announced the penalties on Thursday after requesting video of the workout, which ran in unusually hot and humid weather on the coast.

Players from both teams threw punches during several skirmishes, and Saints tight end Brock Rechsteiner body slammed Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson.

Saints center Erik McCoy threw a Cowboys helmet into the air, then traded punches with linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku, who was thrown out of practice for the second time in camp.

The league said its competition committee has made sportsmanship at joint practices a point of emphasis, and that every club received a memo before training camp about preventing behavior that could cause injury.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called the fine pretty stiff and said the team will appeal it, while also planning to fine his own players who took part.

Jones said that pulling off helmets and swinging them is not what the league or the team wants to represent to fans, which makes the severity understandable.

A million dollars in joint practice fines is the league pricing brawls out of its preseason calendar, and Jerry Jones intends to contest the bill. The Cowboys owner says his club will appeal while still fining its own fighters, discipline stacked on discipline, per the AP wire, though New Orleans answered more quietly: a completely clean session with the Rams two days later, exactly what the league's memo had asked of every club before camp began, per NFL.com. The stakes reach past two clubs, because every coach now prices joint practices as liability as well as preparation, and August scrimmages are where rookies are made. Watch the appeal, and whether next summer's calendar loses a few of these workouts.