Bill Belichick has a no fighting policy.
Break it and you will be thrown out of practice. Even so, the rule has not stopped New England Patriots players from showing aggression in their joint practices with the Chicago Bears.
On Monday, cornerback Malcolm Butler (Super Bowl 49 hero Malcolm Butler) covered Bears receiver Alshon Jeffrey in 11-on-11 drills. They grabbed each other by the facemask and then pushed one another. Players from both sides jumped into the conflict, nearly 70 by the end of it. A few punches were thrown and Butler was ejected from practice.
Butler broke Bill’s rule, so what does he expect? Jeffrey isn’t on the Patriots, so he continued practicing.
And then there was Tuesday…
Seeing what happened to Butler the day before, Bryan Stork decided it would be a good to fight. He was shoved after the whistle by Bears linebacker John Timu in the same drill. So what does Stork do? He headbutts Timu with his helmet and throws “open hand punches” at a few Bears defenders. Hmm… So he slapped them? He’s 310 pounds, he could probably do a little better than that.
Yeah, a guy competing to be the starting center for the New England Patriots this year slaps people. Watch out NFL. Super Bowl champs.
Plus, when football players punch each other in the helmet (like you always see), they’re only hurting their own hand. Just look what it make this guy do:
Emotions run high on the gridiron, but it seems weird the Patriots would be engaging with the Bears. Come on, it’s the Bears. They’ve came in last in back-to-back seasons and are 11-21 in that span.
The Pats scrimmage the Bears tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if there’s any in-game conflict there. It’d most likely lead to some ejections if it does.