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Dallas Cowboys: Practice With Rams Turns Into Brawl

By Christian Blood

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The Dallas Cowboys had their practice with the St. Louis Rams in Oxnard, California canceled on Tuesday due to big fight that broke out.

Could we not see this coming?

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Last year it was the Oakland Raiders and hundreds of their colorful fans that participated in the same type of deal.

That other former team from Los Angeles and a few of their fans took the honors this time.

The details are meaningless, given the fact that only the players know what really happened. I’ve expected for some time that these “fights” are possibly orchestrated as part of the run-up to the regular season. Seriously, how pumped up can a fan get over meaningless preseason games which seldom include starting players?

Jon Machota of Dallas Morning News Tweeted a video clip which shows wide recevier Dez Bryant taking a punch to the face from Rams rookie Zach Laskey, who’s obviously an undrafted rookie trying to make a name for himself.

Then we had a bunch of social media mess from St. Louis cornerback Trumaine Johnson, a guy with all of eight interceptions since entering the NFL in 2012.

The practice was apparently called off by both Dallas head coach Jason Garrett and Rams counterpart Jeff Fisher, who might have ended up just a little perturbed by the fact that his young team couldn’t hold it together after traveling all the way to southern California from St. Louis to be a part of this.

Beyond a neck injury to second-year offensive guard Zack Martin, not much else seemed to arise following a practice session that apparently did it’s job for the fan base of both teams, although it will never be known what effect this had on the evaluative process of both coaching staffs.

If I’m Garrett, I call off these preseason practices all the way around.

While the extra work against another opponent it’s noteworthy, it’s also important to consider that these things can also end up being an invitation for nobodies to get their name in lights one more time during a period of career-desperation, at least in some cases.

The shot Bryant took from Laskey is a prime example of what I’m talking about.

In other words, who stands to gain more in practice sessions like this?

Is it well-established star football players, or is it guys who are simply hoping to be one at some point – or a guy simply praying to keep a job on an NFL roster, whatever one that might be.

I would suggest that it’s the latter.

These players, including many on the Dallas roster, want to make an impression. With limited playing time available for well over half of the slew of players invited to training camp, these practices offer an extra shot at getting noticed, and it really seems like these incidents happen quite frequently.

Earlier this month, the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans had the same issue as they tried to mix and mingle for the greater good in football.

Eliminate the wasted time and injury liability of these inter-squad workouts and manage your own fort. There’s just no time to waste on other garbage and motives that seem impossible to avoid.

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