EAGAN, Minn. - The Vikings and the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars made it through the first of two scheduled co-practices at Twin Cities Orthopedic Performance Center in Eagan without much drama or conflict. That appears to be a result of clear messaging to both teams to be on their best behavior from their respective head coaches, Mike Zimmer and Doug Marrone.
Only time will tell if Thursday's co-practice will go as smoothly, but it was nice to get a break from the fisticuffs that have become an expected part of practice whenever you get two NFL teams together in the pre-season. The fights are an unintended consequence of an NFL experiment that began in the late 80’s, and now seems to be enjoying a revival of sorts.
Back in 1988, then-General Manager Jim Finks moved the New Orleans Saints Training camp from Hammond, Louisiana, to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where the Saints would train until 1999. The Kansas City Chiefs soon followed suit by moving their training camp from St. Joseph, Missouri, to River Falls, Wisconsin in 1991. KC stayed there until 2009.
With the Saints in La Crosse, the Chiefs in River Falls, the Vikings in Mankato, the Chicago Bears in Platteville, Wisconsin (and of course, the Packers in Green Bay) the Cheese League was created. The regional football setup was heralded as the future of football, much like baseball’s spring training sites Florida and Arizona.
Not only did hot weather teams appreciate the midwestern summer, but with so many teams in such close proximity it gave teams the option of holding 'co-practices,' allowing players to compete against someone they hadn't battled twice a day for days on end. Co-practices went out of favor in the 2000s, but seem to be enjoying a resurgence these days. However, not everyone who lived through the co-practice experience is a big fan.
“I didn’t like it a lot”, recalls former Green Bay Packer Darrell Thompson. “It’s already hard enough with the guys that you have but I think it’s a different thing when you have the personality where you’re the top guy from your team against the top guy from the other team and everybody’s been the alpha pretty much since 5th or 6th grade, it’s a delicate dance. It can be done, but it’s a delicate dance, I think.”
That “delicate dance” Thompson speaks of is being performed this week in Eagan by the Vikings and Jags, and while the co-practice is a good thing in theory, there is a lot that can go wrong.
“It’s hard not to get personal”, Thompson reflects. “When you’re successful in college and high school it’s because you have taken it personal, and you make it personal to become a master of your craft, and it’s hard when you start to lose not to get a little bit… edgy.”
We’ve seen that edginess explode already this summer, when most of the players from Washington and the New York Jets engaged in an all-out brawl during a co-practice last weekend, with players engaging in behavior they would never attempt during a game. And we saw it yesterday, when two players on the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers threw punches before being thrown out of practice.
“There is nothing to lose," Thompson says. "I know that if I leave the sideline during a game to get involved in a fight I’m going to get fined, but if I leave the sideline during a practice it’s not gonna cost me anything. So, if somebody gets you down on the field during a practice, am I’m going to run out to try to get him off you? Yeah! That’s my buddy, that’s my homeboy.”
In reality, with the money NFLers are paid they actually have plenty to lose, especially if they’re injured in a fight that was triggered by nothing but fragile male egos. But how do you stop men from trying to physically dominate their opponent in a game that rewards them for doing exactly that?
“You have to have two had coaches who are on the same page”, explains Thompson. “Then, your position coaches are just as important because they’re in direct contact with the players during this delicate dance that we’re talking about.”
Make no mistake about it, Head Coaches Zimmer and Marrone set the tone for these practices when both coaches ejected players from their respective practices last week. Marrone actually suspended two players (including his top cornerback) for a week for their bad behavior.
That kind of discipline is required, Thompson says, to make sure that both teams can reap the benefits that come from getting extra work in against an unfamiliar opponent.
“It’s got to be controlled, quick whistles," Thompson insists. “Those extra pushes are always bad. Always bad.”