NFL fines Cowboys, Saints each $500K following fight-filled joint practice

By Sean Leahy — In News — August 20, 2026

   ​The Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints have each been fined $500,000 by the NFL after multiple fights took place during their joint practice on Tuesday.”The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship — including at joint practices — a point of emphasis over the past several years,” the league said in a statement. “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.”Cowboys defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku was ejected from the practice in Oxnard, California, as several scuffles ensued during the tense get-together between the two NFC teams.There was pushing, shoving, punches thrown, plenty of trash talk, helmets being tossed, and even suspended Saints rookie receiver Brock Rechsteiner taking a page out of his family’s wrestling history and nearly pulling off a German suplex on Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson.Big fight between the Cowboys defense and Saints offense. One Saints player chucked a Cowboys’ player helmet. pic.twitter.com/fudi2abRqL— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) August 18, 2026BAH GAWD THAT’S BROCK RECHSTEINER’S MUSIC!#Saints and #Cowboys in another huge fight.Wait for the slam at 0:17: pic.twitter.com/hDt71jfnbC— NOF (@nofnetwork) August 18, 2026Brevyn Spann-Ford gets into it with a Saints player because that’s just how the day is going. pic.twitter.com/vplYblVwRt— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) August 18, 2026Things are getting way out of hand at Cowboys-Saints pic.twitter.com/6dz65OnRG9— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) August 18, 2026″We kind of had agreed that if a couple of other things happened, we would cancel it, but they worked through it,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said after the practice. “Again, they settled into it, but again, there’s a discipline element to playing this football game and unfortunately we didn’t handle that very well today.””We’re certainly not gonna take s*** from anybody,” Schottenheimer added, while noting “it was chippy on both sides.”On Thursday, Schottenheimer said that the NFL had requested the footage from the joint practice with the Saints with a punishment looming.NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo noted that the league reminded teams before training camps opened to “prevent unsportsmanlike behavior at joint practices to reduce the potential for injury.”The Cowboys and Saints just learned an expensive lesson.  

Content Source: Yahoo News

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