Thursday's joint practice between the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams got a bit chippy. During a special teams period of the practice, tempers flared and a scuffle broke out between the two clubs. That forced head coach Jon Gruden to end the joint session for his Raiders early, sending his team to the buses. The Rams, meanwhile, finished practice, per reporters on the ground.
"I thought we had great work today until special teams, right at the end of the special teams period," Gruden said, via NFL.com. "I have no idea what that was, but that's enough of that crap. That's not good for football, that's not good for anything, that's the end of that practice session."
Gruden said there was no message to deliver to his team following the altercation, but reiterated that it was unacceptable.
"There's no message. They know. They know better," he said. "Everybody knows better. And again, it wasn't everybody fighting. It'll be on TV. You'll see a bunch of guys screaming and yelling. But it was two guys in a special teams period, and then it was a lot of trash-talking that escalated. It's just sickening, really. It's just stupidity. I'm done with that. It's just child's play to me."
Rams head coach Sean McVay was a bit more subdued with his comments about the fight, saying "It's unfortunate we didn't get to finish up (the joint session), but that's kind of where I'll leave that at."
Of course, camp fights aren't exactly uncommon, especially during these joint sessions. Back in 2019, these same two teams got into a similar scrum when they held a joint practice that summer.
"It's good for your team to fight a little bit," said Raiders QB Derek Carr. "Everyone is tried at this point in camp, especially when you're going against somebody in a different jersey. Lot of guys out there are trying to make a team. I think you saw a lot of fights on special teams. Well, there's a reason a lot of the fights came on special teams. They are fighting for a job literally. That stuff's gonna happen, but that doesn't bother me as long as no one gets hurt."
The Raiders and Rams will go head-to-head for their second preseason contest on Saturday with kickoff at 10 p.m. ET.
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