FOXBOROUGH – It was fight night (or in this case, morning) again between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers at joint practice on Wednesday. A couple of the same players were involved in Wednesday's fracas, too.
Patriots receiver Kristian Wilkerson, who was at the center of Tuesday's fight, was on the wrong end of a hit during a kickoff drill. Panthers safety Kenny Robinson, who was involved in the fight with Wilkerson and others on Tuesday, celebrated and appeared to taunt Wilkerson while the receiver was laying on the field.
Several Patriots players, including longtime captain Matthew Slater, and special teams coordinator Cam Achord ran over to the Panthers' side of the field, clearly taking exception as to what happened.
Robinson was booted from practice again, but the fights didn't end there. During team drills a few minutes later, New England defensive end Deatrich Wise appeared to excessively hit Carolina running back Christian McCaffrey as he was running with the ball out of bounds. McCaffrey threw the ball at Wise, causing another fight in front of the fans.
Wise and Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard were tossed from practice after the incident, which caused a minor injury to a woman sitting in the stands.
O yea we got something going here pic.twitter.com/DQvgP01Yp5
— AWLSabermetrics (@awlsabermetrics) August 17, 2022
Both teams huddled, separately, after the second fight and things cooled off for the remainder of the day. Patriots players were still clearly upset with Robinson's actions following practice.
“When you see a teammate down on the field…I don't think that's a time to celebrate, I really don't,” Slater said. “I don't have a problem with the hit. I didn't see it, but it was clean from my understanding. I don't think we should ever celebrate when someone is down and clearly in a dire situation. I personally take issue with that. I don't want anyone of us doing it, on the flip side, if somebody else is down with clears signs and symptoms of a significant injury.”
Wilkerson walked to a cart before leaving practice on Wednesday. The Patriots didn't provide an update on his condition, but Slater said that he was getting evaluated off-site.
Panthers coach Matt Rhule said he didn't see the hit, but took issue with Robinson's taunting. Not only did Rhule toss Robinson from practice, he left open the possibility that the safety could get cut following back-to-back ejections.
“It's two days now at practice that that's happened, we'll have to talk to him,” Rhule said.
“We should be playing football the real way,” he added, “where you help a guy up — not standing over them.”
Slater said he wasn't surprised with fights occurring during joint practices.
“We're in a game situation, we can't have the type of issues that we've had this week. It'll cost our team,” Slater said. “It was a time for us to refocus and get back to football. We're not MMA fighters. We're not Mike Tyson. We're here to come out here and play football. As our emotions ran hot and high, we needed to reel that back in and get back to execution. Playing with good positive energy, playing together — I think [Patriots] coach [Bill Belichick] did a great job of refocusing us.”
“It doesn't mean playing without passion. It means playing under control,” Slater added.
Other Patriots players said they didn't see the events that led up to the fight. Patriots safety Devin McCourty also took exception to Robinson's taunting following the hit.
“When you see our guy laid out, at a period where I would say it wasn't necessary for that, put practice at a little bit of an edge — which is to be expected,” McCourty said.
Slater and McCourty both agreed the fights from the last couple days can be a learning moment for the Patriots, with Belichick giving a strong message to the team following the incident between Wise and McCaffrey.
On the Panthers' end, quarterback Baker Mayfield said Rhule gave their team a stern warning.
“Coach Rhule was just saying, ‘Any more fights and we’re canceling practice and we’ll just go against each other,” Mayfield recalled. “So, let’s not waste these opportunities to go against other competition, and work on our craft.’”
The Patriots and Panthers will meet for a real game on Friday, the second preseason game for each team.
Follow Us
Subscribe