The New Orleans Saints and the Dallas Cowboys reportedly got into at least six fights during a joint practice involving the clubs on Tuesday.
Following that session, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer made it known that what occurred during the practice is “not the way we like to do business.” Saints head coach Kellen Moore sang somewhat of a different tune, as he suggested he won’t lose any sleep regarding what went down.
Kellen Moore: Saints got in needed work with Cowboys despite fights
“All the chippiness of it, not the ideal flow of a joint practice, but we got the work we need,” Moore explained, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
Moore was the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator during the 2022 season when Schottenheimer was working as a coaching consultant for the club. Thus, the two aren’t strangers, and they decided together to keep the practice going amid the numerous skirmishes.
“Schotty and I communicated,” Moore said. “We know each other from working in the past, so we communicated.”
Kellen Moore wants Saints to learn lessons from physical practice with Cowboys
Fights during joint practices are hardly rare occurrences, particularly during sessions held this late into training camp during what are often some of the hottest days of the summer. At this point, players and coaches around the league are ready for regular-season games to get underway.
That said, Moore noted that Tuesday’s practice served as a lesson for Saints players regarding how to handle certain emotions on future Sundays.
“There’s a lot of rah-rah and emotion to football, and that’s part of it,” Moore added. “At the end of the day, it’s about executing and running football plays. There’s a lot of loud people on a football field, but at the end of the day it’s about executing football plays. Take all the emotion out of it, watch it without all the rah-rah to it, and we’ll get some good lessons. …There’s some edginess to football. We get to learn from how this one navigated, and we got some good stuff out of this.”
The Saints and Cowboys will wrap their preseasons up with a game at Dallas’ AT&T Stadium on Aug. 28. One would think Moore and Schottenheimer will instruct their players to take it easy and avoid getting into fights during what will largely be a meaningless contest for both clubs.
