On Thursday, we heard that a couple of Green Bay Packers were fighting during OTAs. Offensive linemen Jason Spriggs, a 2016 second-round draft pick, and linebacker Johnathan Calvin, an undrafted rookie, went at it during practice.
They were said to be swinging wildly and in what I find to be hilarious, each player connected with several blows… to the other guy’s helmet. So, yeah, it wasn’t like a fistfight outside of a bar. Both of these clowns were wearing their helmets and punching each other in the head anyway.
Ultimately, they went to the ground and were separated by teammates.
And when we heard of this, we went with the patented CUTTY! reaction.
You know, guys who play football and line up on the opposite side of the ball from each other often get rough. Sometimes tempers are lost, fights break out.
But there’s potentially a real problem here.
Under the conditions of the collective bargaining agreement, contact is forbidden during OTAs. The Seattle Seahawks were actually penalized twice for such an infraction. The second infraction cost them a week of OTAs and a fifth-round draft pick.
Now, the lunatics obviously run the asylum in Seattle. Color me not surprised at all that the Seahawks violated OTA contact rules.
The Packers run a tighter ship, though. Or so we have been led to believe.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this, if anything. We didn’t see the fight, but you have to think Calvin didn’t just walk by Spriggs and make an off-color remark about his mother. There had to be some sort of contact in order for a blows-to-the-helmet fight to break out.
And that’s not to say that Mike McCarthy or the Packers’ coaching staff necessarily was pushing the envelope on contact. Contact happens when you’re playing football, even if you’re just going through the motions.
Besides that, you know for a fact that Ted Thompson would go in and take a giant dump on McCarthy’s desk if McCarthy cost him a fifth-round pick. Ted is money in the fifth (in his own mind)!
Hopefully, this will just blow over. If it doesn’t, the Packers will likely face a fine and lose a couple days of minicamp like Seattle did on their first offense.
The real question here is, was anyone there and if you were, do you have video? We’d love to see it. Contact us if you do.
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If you believe what was reported elsewhere:
“The Packers were running team drills when Spriggs and Calvin began swinging wildly at each other’s heads. Both players threw multiple punches before falling to the ground, and at that point outside linebacker Clay Matthews and offensive line coach James Campen were able to break it up.
Spriggs said later he took exception to Calvin’s decision to bull rush him during a non-padded practice.
“If I’m going to throw a punch I’m not really trying to hit the face of his helmet,” Spriggs said in the locker room after practice. “I’m trying to get under his chin or something, you know what I mean? It’s the people that miss that are hitting helmets. I’ll throw a couple but I’m not going to sit there and punch someone’s helmet. That’s stupid.”
Didn’t Josh Jones blow up Janis a week ago? According to Spriggs, Calvin bull rushed him and Spriggs took exception to the bull rush causing the fight.
I originally thought this is no big deal, but to the NFL and NFLPA it may be. The Seahawks were fined because:
Carroll said the incident in question happened when two younger players collided going after a ball during a drill and both were injured from the collision.”They both got banged in the head pretty good,” Carroll said. Who knows how much Carroll is down playing the incident or overall practice environment.
Maybe injury is the final determining factor, but I would guess if fists landed both players got banged in the head pretty good. When the NFL fined the Seahawks they indicted, in part, that OTA’s are to be teaching sessions and not physical competition between players.
The NFL must allow some leeway with the teaching process for rookies. Not only on play, but on how to practice. If nothing else the Packers can inform the NFL they are teaching their players on what to do on the field of play when the opponent takes cheap shots at their players.
I think the NFLPA would have more of a problem with this than the NFL. Reducing contact in OTA’s and training camp were one of the very small “wins” the union had in the last CBA agreement. With that said, obviously the NFL still has to react (investigate). There really is no gray area in the stipulation of “no contact”. It’s fairly black and white.
We all like to believe that Howard is all knowing, because he usually is. But in this case i believe he just got home from dining out where he drank copious amounts of alcohol. But don’t be too hard on him, he’s only flesh and blood, with a possible alcohol addiction problem. Please show him the same kind of disrespect you all have graciously shown to me over the years.
Pelican Brewing Co. does brew some good beer. It is really good on a hot day, or night, and it can be hard to keep track of how many you may drink. I would be sure I would drink no more than one or two at a sitting, as far as I can remember.
We all care, we are like family here Howard. Admitting you have a problem is the 1st step to recovery. Some people aren’t ready until they hit rock bottom. When you’re ready to be honest with yourself and seek help, i’m here for you unconditionally with no judgements.
Fuuuuuck I was taking pictures but walked away soon as it happened. I was across the street when I heard the fan reactions.