The Denver Broncos had a scuffle between Bo Nix and Nik Bonitto, and Sean Payton described it as a "tussle."
The Denver Broncos had a camp fight this week, but coach Sean Payton refused to call it that. He noted that no punches were thrown, but Payton did let his starters know that the NFL is doing replay for fights with the option to eject players for the first time this season, according to a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
“Let’s call it a tussle,” Payton told reporters when he was asked about the faux battle. “I got a chance to watch the film. There were no punches, it was just a tussle.”
The rules change is noteworthy, and it’s also interesting that more coaches and teams haven’t jumped on this in joint practices, with many becoming the NFL equivalent of an MMA event. It used to be that the second man in was the one who got bounced, but that won’t be the case this year.
"[W]e covered [it] last night,” Payton said. “What’s new — from an officiating standpoint — this is our first season where they can go to replay in New York and remove a player. So with that being the case, it’s going to be hard to be the guy that gets the first jab. They’re going to be able to go to replay and get it right.
“So we discussed that and we had examples of shoving and then the officials just getting bumped, you’re ejected. All of it we kind of covered, especially with the replay now being changed and it’ll be the first season we have that.”
Payton has long believed that camp fights represent a breakdown in discipline that can cost teams games, according to Jeff Legwold of ESPN, and he added his usual dose of satire and sly humor to his comments.
"Let me know the game where we're fighting and then obviously we're not as concerned about winning that game,” Payton said, “and then I'll kind of measure up the (other) head coach and see where we go, and we can all get ejected -- the games are too important."
This week’s game won’t be important, but the Broncos starters will nonetheless see action. Per Legwold, Payton said he’s expecting Nix to get on the field for roughly a “14-snap count,” and he says all three quarterbacks will play.
It would certainly be surprising to see any more camp tussles, as the Broncos have a veteran group and Payton doesn’t put up with the kind of nonsense that happened this week.
