Patriots Get Into Two More Scraps At Training Camp
FOXBORO (CBS) - After getting into a heated tussle Wednesday night, the New England Patriots got into two more on Friday as Training Camp heats up.
While head coach Bill Belichick said he didn't mind Wednesday night's tussle between Nate Solder and Brandon Spikes, Friday's seemed to upset him a little more.
Both tussles came toward the end of practice, as the Patriots went full-pads once again. Both came on running plays during 11-on-11 drills, according to ESPNBoston's Mike Reiss, and they appeared to involved to have every player on the field.
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Though many of the players served as peacemakers, there was lots of pushing and shoving that went along with it.
Offensive lineman Ryan Wendell and linebacker Bobby Carpenter got the fireworks started, with rookie free agents Darrion Weems and Marcus Forston in the middle of the second, reported Reiss.
"It's the same stuff it always is; guys playing all the way through the whistle and things get a little heated," said Carpenter. "Coach Belichick talked to us and hopefully that won't happen to us again. We can't be fighting ourselves, we have to be working to improve."
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"It's just everybody trying to compete at the end of the day. It's just football," said defensive tackle Kyle Love.
"It's hot out here man; long days of practice," said second-year running back Stevan Ridley. "It's just battling. We have competition going on out here, and any time you have guys competing for a job tempers are going to flare. But we're a team. Sometimes that happens. All you can do is move forward."
This time around though there was a little bit of punishment from Belichick, who made the full team run three full laps around the field.
Belichick addressed the team following the scraps, as did quarterback Tom Brady.
"He's the leader of the team," said receiver Jabar Gaffney. "When things aren't going right he speaks up. He spoke up today and hopefully we learn from that and come together as a team."
"It's Brady's show out here," said Ridley. "He's only going to tell us what's best for the team and for us to get better. We all listen, we all key in when he talks because we know at the end of the day he's just trying to get another championship. That's what we want to do as a team."
