Obviously, the Cowboys came into the 2025 season as a team with a chip on its shoulder, having suffered through a miserable 7-10 campaign last year that was wracked with injuries and ended with getting their coach fired. The team doesn’t want to deal with that again, and players have come into training camp at Oxnard a bit more amped up than usual.
It’s shown on the field, at times in a good way but at least twice now in a decidedly negative way.
On Thursday, the team endured another camp fight, this time with linebacker Marquese Bell throwing punches at rookie tight end Byron Neville, punches which wound up hitting cornerback Troy Pride.
That came after a pair of scuffles that already went down in camp. Previously, second-year tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford and rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku got into a pushing-and-shoving match after a play. Star receiver CeeDee Lamb also had a tussle with cornerback Kernon Hall after a touchdown.
Cowboys Taking Fights Seriously
Chalk it up to training camp feistiness or the natural offshoot of intense competition, but either way, the Cowboys are not looking at it as run-of-the-mill scuffling. Coach Brian Schottenheimer had enough of the in-fighting on Thursday, and gave out a warning to his players.
Per the Dallas Morning News: “Schottenheimer wasn’t happy about the fight. He called the rest of the team to circle up and yelled at them. He told the team that he didn’t care what started the fight. He then added a warning: If anyone else threw a punch, they would be sent off the field.”
Schottenheimer addressed the fights after practice.
“Here’s the deal: I love the intensity,” he said. “You know, I love the intensity, these guys are working their a–es off. I love that. But, again, like we’ve talked about, there’s a tempo that we discuss every day. We’ve talked about it multiple times. There’s going to be those events that happen multiple times during the game.
Brian Schottenheimer: ‘You’re Out of Practice’
Schottenheimer continued: “If you throw a punch, you’re getting kicked out of the game. And along with that, you’re getting fined about $45,000. So, do we have the discipline to, when those things happen, not only not throw a punch but sometimes, it’s better to go and grab your own guy. Go and grab your player, your brother, and pull him out of the fray, so he doesn’t do anything messed up.”
He repeated that he loved the intensity of his players, but added, “But it went too far. I warned them before, and I’ve made it very clear–we’re not throwing punches and if you throw a punch, there’s going to be a consequence, just like in a game, and you’re out of practice.”
CeeDee Lamb Wants Cowboys to Show ‘Professionalism’
No one’s been tossed from practice yet, but it’s clear that players have been put on notice. Lamb addressed the media and pointed out that it’s about professionalism.
“We’ve got to be professionals at the end of the day,” Lamb said, via Blogging the Boys. “I get it, we have a lot of animosity and tension between us and understanding that we want to proclaim dominance and aggressiveness on both sides of the ball, but then again, to what extent?
“I get it that you’re angry, but we don’t have no pads on. There’s literally no protection, so whatever you do, it’s going to hurt us as a team and as a unit.”
