Fight! Fight! Fight!
As training camp fights go, coach Tony Sparano said, he has been around more memorable ones than the fisticuffs this morning between cornerback Will Allen and wide receiver David Kircus.
“A receiver and DB fighting, I don’t think that’s much of a fight sometimes,” joked Sparano, a former offensive lineman.
But it didn’t take long for the Allen-Kircus tussle to end up with much of the team in a scrum.
A minute later, cooler heads prevailed and the team resumed practicing.
Speaking to the media after practice, Sparano said he wasn’t sure how the scrap began.
“Things happened so fast out that I didn’t really see how the play went,” he said.
Following an incomplete pass, Kircus fell to the ground and Allen suddenly was on top of him, throwing punches. Kircus didn’t retaliate, and when Allen stopped swinging and walked off, an unidentified offensive player jumped on him, leading to a team-wide skirmish.
One observer said the spark could have come when Kircus laid a hard block on Allen two plays earlier. Sparano didn’t care.
“It’s not smart,” Sparano said. “It’s not something I condone at all out here. I mean, stuff happens, we’ve been out 16, 17, I don’t know how many days now. But that’s our second fight we’ve had …
“Bottom line, we’re trying to teach discipline in games and that can cost you a player in a game in a critical situation. You don’t want that. It’s not what we’re trying to do.”
Sparano said he spoke with Allen and Kircus on the field and “they’re fine right now.” Sparano knows from personal experience that’s not always the case for everyone involved in a training-camp scuffle.
The coach recalled trying to stop a fight during his first season as an NFL assistant in Cleveland. The details are a little fuzzy because Sparano caught an inadvertent right hand to the face from 6-foot-7, 360-pound Orlando Brown.
“I didn’t know any better, I thought it was college,” Sparano said. “I kind of dove in the middle of it. The next thing you know I came out of there like I was shot out of a cannon.”
Sparano, who coached the Browns’ offensive line, said tight ends coach Ray Perkins, a former NFL head coach, looked at Sparano and said, “Well son, did you learn something?”
Sparano said he wouldn’t have known if he did.
“I don’t remember,” he said. “I got hit in the face.”
Somewhat dumb, but who cares. If Allen needs to get his agression out why not do it on a highly padded man. But whoever jumped on him, that wasn’t quite a good idea although some people would feel the need to retaliate. But cooler heads should of prevailed, But this is pretty much a non story and not sure why I am posting it but it was all the media was talking about this afternoon.
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