New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo had a unique punishment to avoid training camp practice fighting in Tuesday’s scrimmage with the Philadelphia Eagles.
And it worked.
Aside from a minor brush-up involving Patriots outside linebacker Joshua Uche, there were no fights at the practice, and no one had to be ejected.
Joint practice fights aren’t exactly a new phenomenon.
A massive brawl broke out at a training camp practice between the Patriots and Carolina Panthers in 2022, and the coaching staff wanted to ensure that nothing like that happened again.
So Mayo created a new punishment for his players. If a starter got into a fight, they would play for the entire preseason game on Thursday. However, if the player wasn’t a starter, they wouldn’t play at all.
Jerod Mayo says he tells players if a starter gets into a fight in joint practice, they’ll play the whole preseason game, and if they aren’t a starter, they won’t play at all
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) August 13, 2024
It’s certainly a unique punishment and one that seemingly yielded positive results. One has to wonder if this will become a common approach for the Patriots moving forward with future joint practices.