It’s been a nasty yr for the idea of joint practices, however on Thursday a scrimmage between the Rams and Bengals took the cake.
It’s unclear what triggered this to pop off, however there have been unconfirmed studies that Rams celebrity Aaron Donald was pushed to the bottom on the finish of the play, which sparked this brawl. No matter what kicked it off, Donald went far and past a suitable response when he pulled the helmet off a Bengals participant, obtained his palms on one other — and commenced swinging them at his opponents.
The video reveals that these weren’t gentle hits. Donald was swinging down over his head at full pressure, and was fortunate to not have injured anybody within the incident. It’s yet one more case of two groups making an attempt to have joint practices and watching them boil over as gamers are unable to maintain their cool.
When it comes to what occurs subsequent, it’s murky. Myles Garrett of the Browns was suspended indefinitely in Week 11 of the 2019 season for pulling the helmet off Steelers QB Mason Rudolph and hitting him with it, and was reinstated previous to the 2020 season, lacking six video games in complete.
Whereas that’s the NFL’s rubric for utilizing a helmet as a weapon within the common season, the league has not enforced any penalties throughout these blended practices. Groups have been requested to roughly self-police these scrimmages, with the league having little or no involvement. Usually an infraction at apply wouldn’t result in a suspension or penalty, however that is an excessive case of violence throughout apply — and one thing that may undoubtably make mainstream information past the sports activities world.
We’ll have to observe and see how this unfolds as a result of it could possibly be a significant factor main into the 2022 NFL common season if Donald is pressured to overlook video games.