Embrace the chaos – Browns, Cowboys and Saints fighting is just part of NFL’s violent game

It got so dangerous for Shedeur Sanders that the Cleveland Browns were forced to end practice early.

When the Dallas Cowboys faced the New Orleans Saints in the middle of training camp, a professional wrestling match broke out with flying helmets and multiple brawls.

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Saints and Cowboys threw punches and helmets

“There’s some edginess to football,” Saints head coach Kellen Moore said.

Apparently it was super edgy in Oxnard, California on Tuesday, as the son of WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner body-slammed an opponent against the turf.

“I was going out there talking crap to the guys, talking a bunch,” Saints quarterback Tyler Shough said.

“We were out there competing every single down.”

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There will surely be a few Wednesday morning social media posts insisting that the NFL must step in and end team vs team practices.

Please, please, don’t let that absurd overreaction happen.

The preseason is already watered down enough and effectively meaningless in 2026.

What used to be four contests has been cut down to three, while most NFL teams overprotect their starting quarterbacks and increasingly limit the use of starters until Week 1.

Browns ended practice early to protect Sanders

Why are so many teams and players getting into nasty, old-school brawls during the summer of 2026?

Partly because NFL players spend less time than ever practicing, on-field hitting is more restrictive than ever due to CBA rules, and there’s effectively a four-month regular-season window for real pro action between the lines.

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Of course, no one wants to see a QB or linebacker go down during practice.

But when NFL players are wearing pads and helmets — as long as they’re not madly tossed aside — the likelihood of anything ‘real’ happening during a pro practice fight is extremely low.

During my NFL beat writing days, I regularly heard from coaches that team vs team practices were preferred over preseason games.

Practice tape was prized, while the brief sessions brought out the best in summer competitiveness.

“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.

MLB and NBA mostly just talk and rarely attack

NFL fights are better than MLB and NBA fights — the latter are almost always all talk and no punches.

But NFL practice fights normally follow the same unwritten rules, as the fire of the moment is quickly replaced by reason and sanity.

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A field full of young millionaires knows that all that matters is Week 1 through Week 18 and the playoffs.

Jobs, roster spots and depth charts are on the line for all 32 teams right now.

Embrace the chaos of summer before the real on-field violence returns in September.

“There’s a lot of rah-rah and emotion to football, and that’s part of it,” Moore said.

“At the end of the day it’s about executing and running football plays. There’s a lot of loud people on a football field but at the end of the day it’s about executing football plays.”