Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur wanted to avoid fights during the joint practice with the Denver Broncos on Friday.
He and Broncos coach Sean Payton agreed to skip 1-on-1 drills where wide receivers face cornerbacks or linebackers face running backs. They also decided to make the pass-rush drills during 7-on-7s shorter and less intense.
“We just want a good, competitive practice and we want to keep it safe,” LaFleur said. “We want to eliminate all fighting if possible.” He knew this would be a challenge.
“It’s football. There’s going to be competitiveness, there’s going to be chippiness,” LaFleur said. “But can you keep your composure? I think that’s part of the beauty of the game. When you’re in a real-life game situation, it does get chippy, it does get testy, and guys start to talk (trash).
But can you keep your composure?” Less than 30 minutes later, LaFleur was furious, running onto the field and shouting at Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto after quarterback Jordan Love, who recently signed a four-year, $220 million extension, was knocked to the ground and threw an interception.
Bonitto shrugged and looked back at LaFleur and the Packers’ noisy sideline, defending himself.
Love said afterward that it was actually one of his own linemen who hit him just as he was about to throw the ball.
“Zach Tom just got pushed and hit my shoulder,” Love said. “So I don’t think it was anything with the D-line or anything like that. I think just friendly fire.” This incident fired up his coaches and teammates.
“A lot of guys didn’t really see it and know what happened,” Love said. “We make a big point of staying away from the quarterback, so they might have thought the D-lineman hit my arm, which I don’t think happened. I was hit when I threw but I think it was from Zach Tom. I got hit from my own guy.”
